Chasing youth vote, Indian parties blitz smartphones with political cartoons

A man speaks on a phone next to a hoarding with cartoons of India's main opposition Congress Party President Rahul Gandhi and Sanjay Nirupam, President of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee, alongside a road in Mumbai, India, February 22, 2019. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

PUNE, India: Ganesh Bhalerao is a cartoonist hoping to go viral in the battle to secure Prime Minister Narendra Modi's re-election when India votes over the next two months.

Hired by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to find amusing ways to lionise Modi or lampoon opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, Bhalerao is a social media warrior in an election campaign being fought online as never before.