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As millions of Indians vote, there’s one platform most of them will turn to for information: WhatsApp. And no one controls the political narrative on WhatsApp like the BJP, the ruling party helmed by Prime Minister Modi.

In partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and Digital Witness Lab, Rest of World spent several months in northern India to explore how the BJP turned its WhatsApp strategy into an election-winning machine. Just in Mandi, a tiny Indian town with a population of 26,000, party volunteers run a network of more than 400 WhatsApp groups. Our analysis of thousands of messages sent in these groups shows how India’s ruling party is able to maintain a sophisticated operation on WhatsApp, and optimize its political campaign on the platform far away from public scrutiny.

Written by Srishti Jaswal. Narrated by Mithila Phadke.

Original story: https://restofworld.org/2024/bjp-whatsapp-modi/

Inside the BJP’s WhatsApp machine

Episode description