The election for the Maharashtra Assembly in 2024 has occurred full of surprises as every constituency focuses media attention, this time partially for a wrong reason in the instance of Versova. Ajaz Khan, a former contestant of Bigg Boss and actor who has a massive fan base of 5.6 millions and 4.1 million on Facebook and Instagram respectively, managed to get a meager136 votes in his constituency’s election. This difference between his having a large following on social media and the number of people who voted for him has raised eyebrows from the public.
Versova Constituency: A Typical Politcal Page
Ajay Rao, a Shivsena candidate talks about how the political dynamics in Versova are shifting and talks about how politics has taken a more compassionate route as the vote counting resumes for him. The Versova seat has been receiving a stiff competition as a majority of the constituencies in the region. Haroon Khan, a Shivsena (UBT) candidate, is leading with 61,958 votes and Bharati Lavekar of BJP is at second position with 58474 votes. Even with these intense rivalry between these two contenders, Ajaz Khan’s worse performance does take the news. A member of Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram), he fired a lot of enthusiasm entering the elections but did not have a lot of relevance to his in the ground Hong Kong voters.
Ajaz Khan’s Social Media Followers vs Electoral Votes
Ajaz Khan has quite an impressive social media following which suggests that he is a well-known figure. Unfortunately, he failed to translate this influence into votes. After all the counting took place, Ajaz managed to receive only 146 votes against the NOTA which received 1216 votes. This discrepancy raises eyebrows regarding the significance of an online persona in politics.
On November 20, voters in the Versova constituency recorded a turnout of 51.2%, but Ajaz’s campaign did not receive a good reaction. Even though he attempted to reach out to the electorate, his campaign displayed the problem of a crossover from entertainment to politics for high-profile individuals.
Ajaz Khan: A Return To Scandal Pressure & Controversy
Ajaz Khan is one person that always gets involved in some sort of controversies. His candidacy reminded many of a viral incident involving the popular YouTuber CarryMinati. In that event where the YouTuber came to engage with Ajaz, where Ajaz asked him to take down the roast video related to him which he created on his own channel. This part of the video shows Ajaz tearing off Carry’s mask and saying, “This is Carry da…You should say sorry to my fans.’ The video ends with Carry stating, “If you were hurt, I want to apologize, I’m sorry.” One of Ajaz’s famous quotes is “Not every hole has a rat, it’s just that there could be snakes in there” and this to me was also one of his trademark sayings which lit up his character as well.
The Social Network Revolution in Politics
For Ajaz Khan the results of the Maharashtra elections answered several questions concerning the use of social media in today’s political sphere. However, elevating the profile of a candidate through Instagram or Facebook cannot translate into goodwill for that candidate or even electoral success, Ajaz’s case proves this point. So the Ajaz case points out a far ‘deeper’ voter engagement and a clear political objective for each individual politically, rather than merely the appeal of being popular in the digital world.
Final Thoughts: A Lesson for Future Politicians
Politics is not as easy as it seems to be in the case of Ajaz Khan. Political success relies on trust, local affiliation, low level campaigns, not social media influence. These aspects of Ajaz Khan’s life and the local Ahmednagar District stand in stark contrast to one another however the recent Assembly Elections results only highlight further evidence that voters cannot be socially micro targeted by social media platforms, as Khan’s defeat highlights.
This social media influencer whether wanted it or not has said a deep lesson: Politics is about substance and not about cosmetics.