New Delhi: The opening tune reminds one of the Gladiator or any period war film. Except that, this time, it’s not Russell Crowe, it’s JD(S) leader Kumaraswamy.
Famous actor or not, Kumaraswamy sure has sounded the poll bugle by featuring in "Karnataka’s first political game" and it is played on a different turf.
In a unique initiative, JD(S) has released a game similar to Super Mario where like Mario, Kumaraswamy is made to jump from one slab to another, with the slab being either a blue fist or an orange flower.
The game starts with how Kumaraswamy is the one leader who can change Karnataka’s fortunes, with the tagline “Kumaranna for CM.”
It has over 250 reviews and a rating of 4.8 in the Google app store. It has been downloaded 5,000 times. The party claims the game has been downloaded from the JD(S) official website over 11,000 times.
It was created by a person residing in the United States of America, Kiran Shivaling, someone whom the party says has no affiliation to politics and is just a follower of Kumaraswamy.
The game is a part of the larger social media outreach that the party is doing, which includes text and voice messages, making Kumaraswamy call back people who give a missed call to the designated party number, etc.
In the game, whenever the player makes the character (Kumaraswamy) land on a particular slab, it erupts into points. Make the character jump further, and a woman, possibly a farmer, seen with fresh harvest, starts to appear on the slab.
The slabs and the hurdles represent the constituency where his party has to fight to get to power. And, of course, the flower represents BJP and the fist represents the Congress. And at every stage that the player overcomes, a pop up appears — Kumaraswamy’s election promises.
The features of the game, as listed on the app store, include “defeat the obstacles, convert the enemy flag to JD(S) flag, and educate yourself about the contribution of the party”.
JD(S)’s entry into the social media, mobile gaming domain is interesting as the party is largely known as one with a strong base in rural Karnataka, among farmers. The mobile game seems to be an attempt to reach out the youth, more so in the urban sector.
“Around 20 people worked on this game. This is an attempt for us to reach out to the youth beyond the rural areas and it has been received well,” said Naveen C, head of JD(S)’s IT cell.
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