How YouTube Influencers Helped BJP Reach Out To Tamil Voters

New Delhi: Tamil Nadu has always been dominated by regional political parties including DMK or AIDMK. In the ongoing 18th Lok Sabha Election, the BJP is eying to make its support base-wide in the state and hopefully win a few Lok Sabha seats driven by the popularity of the party's state chief K Annamalai and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP, which failed to seal a seat-sharing deal with the AIADMK this election, is not only betting on its leaders like Modi, Amit Shah, JP Nadda and Annamalai, but it's also relying on social media platforms like X (Twitter) and YouTube.

There are multiple right-wing YouTube handles that upload content aligned with the ideology of the BJP. These videos are gathered with no positive or negative responses. 

The fire started after Prime Minister Narendra Modi dropped a post on the Katchatheevu issue. PM Modi alleged that the Congress party gave up approximately 258 acres of land to Sri Lanka at the time of Indira Gandhi's government. This poll plank indicated the intention of the BJP senior leaders who are seeking support from the Tamil Nadu people for the 39 parliamentary constituencies of the state against the ruling DMK and Congress. A few days prior the PM Modi's post, YouTuber Keerthika Govindara raised the same issue on her channel, which carries a 21.1 lakh audience. This is not the first time, earlier, Govindara uploaded multiple videos targeting the Tamil Nadu audience with her channel named  Keerthi History and most of the videos indicate the ideology of the saffron party. 

Keerthika Govindara, a young girl, guarantees to claim about real history to the people. In the first edition of the National Creators Award, Keerthika Govindara was honoured with 'Best Book Storytellers' by Prime Minister Modi. The award was created to promote the social media influencers for their work by the central government.

Except for 'Keerthi History', there are many other channels on YouTube that somehow promote the ideology of rightwing through their content. Tamil Nadu has already polled in phase 1 on April 19 and it is time to wait for the counting days and check out who is going to lead the state. However, the role of these YouTube handles cannot be ignored when it comes to the BJP's growing popularity in the state.