To extend its electronic reach among the people of Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party has launched its channel “Bicycle TV” on YouTube.
The bicycle is the election symbol of the party.
The SP soft launched the channel last week and a dedicated team of media experts, researchers, curators, photographers and videographers are presently creating content for the channel.
The move is apparently aimed at preparing for virtual campaigning if the Covid-19 pandemic continues in the coming months.
The channel has uploaded a dozen curated short video documentaries. Some of them are an attack on the ruling BJP and its government on various issues while others aim at publicising the party and achievements of the earlier Akhilesh Yadav government.
One of the documentaries titled “Uttar Pradesh, India .. is my family” shows a day in the life of party president Akhilesh Yadav. Another documentary on the channel is titled ‘Dharti Putra Mulayam Singh.’
If ‘Mission 2022-22 mein bicycle (bicycle in 2022)’ urges people to vote for the party in the 2022 UP Assembly elections, then ‘Save UP, the heart of India’ targets the UP government and chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
One short film is focused on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway and another one on 108 ambulances, while ‘Samajwadi Hausala’ (socialist grit) highlights the lathicharge on SP youth leaders.
Abhishek Mishra, SP National Secretary and former UP Minister, said, “The channel will be used to beam our campaign, promote party’s ideas and ideologies, previous SP government’s achievements, party’s future programmes, announcements, expose the ruling party and their lies and beam live press conferences and live party events.”
The Samajwadi Party has become the only regional party in UP to have an active channel, though it is not the first one to venture into it.
The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) had launched a channel three years ago, but it has been dormant for two years.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) does not have its own channel as yet.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have their active YouTube channels with large followings, but they are not UP-centric.
–IANS
