After influencers, PM Modi targets young voters via online gamers | Lok Sabha Elections News

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with some of the top online gamers in India on Thursday. In a teaser shared on his social media accounts, Modi can be seen talking to five gamers: Naman “Mortal” Mathur, Animesh “Thug” Agarwal, Mithilesh “MythPat” Patankar, Payal “Payal” Dhare, Ganesh “SkRossi” Gangadhar, Tirth “gcttirth” Mehta, and Anshu “GamerFleet” Bisht.

The social media posts of these gamers featured a common hashtag “#GameinIndia”. They mentioned that Prime Minister Modi promised the gamers that the Centre would support the gaming and esports industry in India. The full video is expected to be released on April 13.

Animesh and Mithilesh posted on Instagram, “We recently had an in-depth discussion with the Prime Minister about the eSports industry. His vision is set to revolutionise gaming in India.”

In the video, Animesh says, “Who is the biggest influencer in India? It is our Prime Minister”.

“By interacting with top gamers of our country, Prime Minister Modi has inspired the young gamers of the country to pursue it as a viable career option as well,” said Parth Chadha, founder and chief executive officer at STAN, a Bangalore-based gaming community start-up.

However, this seems to be in line with Prime Minister Modi’s strategy of engaging with young voters.

A political analyst, who preferred to remain anonymous, stated that Prime Minister Modi has maintained a special focus on reaching out to young Indians, contributing to his high popularity and acceptance among the youth.

“Initiatives like ‘Pariksha pe Charcha’ seem to have worked in his favour,” he said. ‘Pariksha pe Charcha’, initiated in 2018, is now an annual event where Prime Minister Modi interacts with students and their parents, sharing tips about board and entrance exams.

Last month, Prime Minister Modi presented the first-ever National Creators Awards in New Delhi. At the event, most of the awards were given to young creators like 15-year-old Piyush Purohit, 20-year-old Jahnvi Singh, 23-year-old Maithili Thakur, 28-year-old Jaya Kishori, 28-year-old Nischay Malhan, and 30-year-old Ranveer Allahbadia, among others.

In October last year, Prime Minister Modi released a video with fitness influencer Ankit Baiyanpuria, who became famous for his “75 hard challenge”. Baiyanpuria also received the National Creators Award. Most of these influencers, as well as gamers, have millions of followers on the internet. According to reports, most people engaged in these sectors are young.

The “State of India Gaming Report” released by Google and Lumikai last year stated that the country has around 568 million gamers, and 50 per cent of these are between the ages of 18 to 30. Another report titled “Digital 2024: India”, released in February this year, highlighted that the median age of social media users in India is 28.4 years, with the largest demographic being the age group of 20-24 years (128 million).

Interestingly, according to the Election Commission (EC), around 211 million voters in India this year will fall into the age group of 18-29 years. Since the 2019 elections, the country has added 20 million young electors in the age group of 18 to 29.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also recently launched the “My First Vote for Modi” campaign with a website, pehlavotemodiko.bjp.org, to engage with first-time voters in India and seek their support.

A report by the news agency PTI had earlier quoted a party leader as saying that the website emphasised the message that the lives of Indian youths have improved under the 10 years of the government led by Modi.

As of April 11, over 1 million people have “pledged” their first vote to Prime Minister Modi, according to the website. As per EC data, there will be 18.2 million first-time voters in the Lok Sabha elections this year.

First Published: Apr 11 2024 | 9:18 PM IST