Quick to seize on the fevered anticipation for the final season of Game of Thrones , the Election Commission, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) and even the Congress are using popular references from the hit HBO series to make themselves heard in the poll season.
As the war between the seven kingdoms for the Iron Throne in Westeros is set to conclude with the final season of the much-acclaimed show, known for its portrayal of power dynamics, the poll panel and the PIB are drawing inspiration from it to maximise voter turnout in the ongoing general elections.
The last and eighth season of the cult show, based on a series of books by George RR Martin, began airing on Monday.
The opposition Congress is using the show to take potshots at its political opponent.
The EC, hoping to spread voter awareness on social media, took to the most famous GOT line, “Winter is coming”, in its poster on Twitter. Its poster, “? is Coming”, kept twitterati guessing.
“Don your creativity caps! After our #VoterQuotient quiz for the scholarly followers, now we have something for our artistically inclined followers. Can anyone guess what’s it about? Be ready as we reveal our next contest at 1pm today,” read a follow-on tweet.
The PIB used several GOT memes, featuring fan favourites Tyrion Lannister and Hodor, calling on people to cast their votes.
Memes with messages
“No matter how big or small one is, every vote has equal power. This #LokSabhaElections, become a true hero. Go out and vote... #ItMatters #LokSabhaElections2019 #GeneralElections2019,” the bureau wrote on the microblogging site, referring to Peter Dinklage’s character Tyrion, often ridiculed as a dwarf in the series.
The PIB meme features three key characters — Tyrion, Hodor and Daenerys Targaryen.
The first section of the meme features Tyrion and reads, “A very small man can cast a very large one”. “Not all heroes hold weapons... Some just vote,” reads the tagline with gentle giant Hodor, played by Kristian Nairn in the show, in the backdrop.
The last part features Drogon, one of Daenerys’ three dragons. The caption describes the elections as a “Festival of Democracy”. Emilia Clarke plays the Mother of Dragons Daenerys in the series.
The finale
Coincidentally, the show’s finale will air on May 19, the day of the seventh and last phase of polling. The Congress used the GOT mania to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP ministers for alleged corruption. It shared a photoshopped GOT poster in which the main threat, the Night King, is replaced by Modi.
Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitley are shown as the notorious Walder Frey, Joffrey Baratheon and Petyr Baelish, respectively.