Coronavirus may change face of Indian elections; mega rallies, long voters' queue likely to be history

New Delhi: The outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic across the world is likely to change methods of democratic celebration through rallies or public gatherings. So far, millions used to participate in rallies to hear their leaders and the way cadres of political parties campaign from house to house may probably think twice in the post-coronavirus phase. 

India is known for the celebration of democracy during elections and a glimpse of it was also exhibited two months ago to the US President Donald Trump at the Namaste Trump rally at Mottera Stadium in Gujarat. Around 1.25 million people attended this rally to welcome President Trump who admitted that he had never seen so many people together in his life. 

After returning to his country, he said that he witnessed millions in India together in one rally, therefore, a crowd of 15-20 thousand could hardly enthuse him now in America. He has been fortunate to address such a large rally in his lifetime, but in the future, he may hardly be able to attend such a congregation.

Things are likely to change in the US as well as in India, where Assembly elections are due in six states of Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, and Puducherry. About 25 crore voters will participate in these elections. This is about 78 percent of the total population of America, which will also face Presidential election by the end of this year. 

After the coronavirus outbreak, it would be almost impossible to call millions in rallies. A new rule of social distancing may be added to the model code of conduct in the upcoming elections. 

For the first time in the history of 70 years in the world's largest democracy, India, and perhaps for the first time in the history of the oldest democracy, 124-year-old, in the United States, leaders will have to use options other than rallies and roadshows.

William McKinley, who became US President in 1897, is said to have started mass meetings in modern history. William Ewart Gladstone, who became Prime Minister of Britain in 1892, is said to have started giving public speeches during election campaigns. 

India's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was also known for addressing mega rallies, but these examples may now be restricted to the pages of history.

During the Lok Sabha elections in the year 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed about 142 election rallies, travelling about one and a half lakh kilometers to reach about 1.5 crore people. This was even bigger in 2014. 

The example of future changes was also witnessed in the recently held elections in South Korea, where all polling booths were sanitized before voting, and the body temperature of voters was checked. Those who had symptoms of coronavirus were sent directly to the test after casting their votes. 

The Election Commission of India is also analyzing the model of South Korea, but it will not be easy to follow social distancing for crores of voters in India. So the question is what can be done then.

For this, the help of Artificial Intelligence, Online campaign, and Digital Technology will be taken. The use of digital technology has been witnessed during the election campaign in the last few years, but now the election campaign will have to be completely handed over to these technologies.

Political parties will have to use the data of voters and voters may also be termed as data in the future. Apart from this, Artificial Intelligence can also be used in future election campaigns. All the digital devices you use today are able to tell a lot about your personality. Your location, your thoughts, your shopping habits, and even your health can be easily ascertained. 

There may not be any need to hold rallies for the election campaigns in future as all promotional material could be made available to people on their mobile phone, which will probably become the arena of election rallies. A Facebook Like would also be able to tell where the trend of voters is, as per a 2017 study.

Instead of launching door to door campaign, local leaders may ask for votes through Chat Bot on the internet. With Chat Bot, one can ask question and Robot would answer questions on the basis of machine learning. The whole process will have to be online as far as future elections are concerned.