Odisha polls: Cartoonists having a field day on social media

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Bhubaneswar, April 2:

While the leaders themselves are busy aiming arrows laced with poison at each other at election meetings in Odisha, their supporters are having a field day lampooning the leaders of their rivals in the social media.

Facebook in particular has provided an ideal battleground for supporters to aim barbs at each other in the form of cartoons and caricatures. Most such posts get a large number of ‘Likes’ and get shared among friends in next to no time.

Given the widely held perception that the coming Lok Sabha elections are essentially a battle between BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Congress heir apparent Rahul Gandhi, it is hardly surprising that the bulk of the cartoons and caricatures have to do with these two.

“This is a platform to express my opinion openly about my choice to support or oppose a candidate. I make cartoons of the candidate I do not like, in the Facebook. Since I can’t express my anguish in front of the person, I have opted for this platform,” said Rajiv Dalabehera, a frequent Facebook user.

However, social media is not used to express only anger over candidates and political parties. The people are also making morphed images of their beloved leaders portraying them as superheroes or epic characters in order to get the attraction of the social media users and garner votes for them ahead of the elections.

“I use my talent for the sake of my leader Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. I want Naveen Patnaik come to power once again. So, I have made a morphed picture of Patnaik portraying him as a super hero,” said Ramesh Behera.