Political parties woo Chhattisgarh youth on Facebook, Whatsapp

Raipur, Oct 25: Political parties in

are leaving no stone unturned to reach out to young voters through mobile phones and social

to influence them in their favour ahead of the next month's Assembly elections.

Both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Opposition Congress have created Facebook pages for their candidates in 90 constituencies and are promoting their stand on the smartphone application called 'Whatsapp', besides using voice calls.

"Work has been completed to woo the cyberworld ahead of the coming Assembly elections through slogans, songs, cartoons, advertisement campaigns, as well as videos," head of BJP's Information Technology Cell Deepak Maske said.

After finding less users of Twitter in Chhattisgarh, the focus is mostly on Facebook and Whatsapp in urban areas, while in remote areas of Bastar and Surguja in North Chhattisgarh, where Internet is not available, voice calls will help the party to reach young voters, Maske said.

The BJP has also hired technocrats from Chhattisgarh and other states to chalk out strategies to promote the party in the virtual world. After candidates for all constituencies are announced, the online campaign would begin, he said.

Similarly, the Congress plans to expand the reach of the party and its leadership on various online media platforms. "We have provided smartphones to some party leaders in remote areas so that they can show the party's promotional videos to villagers and make them listen to audio messages," head of Congress' IT Cell Sameer Pandey said.

Right from day-to-day happenings to information on rallies, list of candidates and photo galleries, everything is available on Facebook pages of candidates. The message is also spread though SMS and Whatsapp.

PTI