TN Polls: An Independent candidate capturing spirit of digital age

Just as all sectors have a digital makeover thanks to the advent of the Internet and glossy technology in the millennium, so electioneering is catching up with changing times. Reflecting on the digital metamorphosis, Deepan Chakravarthi, an independent candidate contesting from the Namakkal Assembly constituency in the upcoming elections scheduled for April 6, 2021, has been wooing the tech-savvy youth with his campaign through digital platforms.

Namakkal (Tamil Nadu): Deepan Chakravarthi of Ayyappan Kovil Street in Namakkal is a well-known figure also known as a ‘Chennai Vlogger’.

It is this digital fame that has driven his decision to contest the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections as an independent candidate from Namakkal.

With his ‘Lorry’ symbol, he has been travelling along the digital highway, soliciting votes, particularly from youth.

Chakravarthi started his career as a newsman eight years ago and the experiences he has gleaned from the stint have helped him establish himself as a digital media man dishing out all data and knowledge to the viewers through his regular videos and ultimately, has ended up being well known as ‘Chennai Vlogger Deepan.’

Now he has taken a plunge into the electoral politics throbbing with political buzz, armed with his experience and fame as a vlogger.

He has also uploaded on his exclusive digital page the entire sequence of his filing nomination papers and the rustle and the bustle that have characterized his new political experience.

It is a visual treat to hordes of his followers.

Rather than going in search of change, we should be agents of change ourselves, he said, feeling happy that he has got ‘Lorry’ as his election symbol, around which a pivotal industry is operating in his district.

In keeping with the digital age laying an emphasis on data, he has created his own web page titled, "I, Deepan, an MLA."

For the lovers of social media, this digital page teeming with glossy visuals hardly sounds like one of self-promotion; rather as a useful and informative page peddling various pieces of information about how to file nomination papers in an election, how to choose symbols, how to draw up a list of promises and what are the duties of a legislator. His data-driven vlogging (video + blogging) has gone down well with the netizens who keep showering praises on his endeavour.

With major political parties having usurped almost the entire space in electoral politics, the youths hailing from the ordinary background find themselves feel alienated, fighting shy of touching even the fringes of the mighty and haughty world of politics.

As if breaking that inhibition among the youth, Deepan has set out to prove himself an example worth emulation, guiding the directionless youth and instilling in them knowledge, drive and determination, the sine qua non for conquering the world.

Let us wait and watch if his followers in thousands in the digital world will throw in their weight behind him and if his digital fame will translate into solid votes enough to transport him to the Assembly.