Indian voters will elect their representatives from Friday. An election in which the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party, is betting on the under-25s through a campaign focused on social networks.

India and its 970 million voters are called to elect their representatives from Friday, April 19th. The vote will take six weeks. Current Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been in power since 2014 and is seeking a third term. He can count on an army of young volunteers who specifically look after the country's youth.

In front of volunteers from the Indian People's Party (BJP), a small theater group praises Narendra Modi, the ubiquitous prime minister who promotes a nationalist and populist discourse. A somewhat unusual way to motivate the troops in this highly connected country, where 800 million people use the Internet.

But make no mistake, BJP volunteers understand that those under 25 years of age make up 40% of India's population. “We are using social media to promote the BJP: Instagram, Facebook and all other platforms like YouTube etc. WhatsApp will be used to spread information about the events we are organizing in the next few days.”

New features in this campaign include a QR code for those voting for the first time. “We have installed this code at various places in Delhi, in toilets, metro stations, near schools and universities. We scan it and you get all the achievements that Narendra Modi has made in the last nine or 10 years.”

Modi's economic record, in power since 2014, is the main argument his team is making, as is his internationally known personality.

“Mr Modi is a great human being, he is a great leader, the greatest leader in the world. And India is now a growing country.”

A BJP volunteer

at franceinfo

And every volunteer considers himself a full-fledged member of an ideological army. “You can call us BJP soldiers, one of them adds. We believe in Modi's ideology. We consider our country as our mother. For us, the progress of our country is our top priority. We have grown more in ten years than we have in the last 70 years.”

However, no word on unemployment, which is hitting young university graduates hard, nor on increasing inequalities. And even less about the Hindu nationalist discourse that the current prime minister and his supporters increasingly espouse.