Political parties swear by social media in Bengal poll

Kolkata, Mar 10: With the Assembly election in West Bengal drawing near, the political parties have extended their fight into the cyber space swearing by the revolutionary impact of the social media.

In a bid to reach out to the Gen-x, the Trinamool Congress, the CPI-M, the Congress and the BJP have come up with innovative ideas to make their presence felt in the digital space through their top leaders.

Topping the chart is the Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who is not only a regular user of Facebook and Twitter, but is also the most popular face there.

Banerjee's Facebook page is being liked by near about 16 lakh people and her Twitter handle Mamata Banerjee@Mamataofficial has more than 2.6 lakh followers.

"Trinamool Congress has been very active on social media with a strong presence on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. It has given us a huge window to share with all of you our thoughts, achievements and concerns."

"I hope you too must have had a great experience staying in touch with us through the digital world," Banerjee had recently said in a Facebook Post.

TMC's national spokesperson Derek O'Brien, who is one of the active on social media, said it was easy to create a communication campaign if someone had a good development track record in the last 4-5 years.

"Mamatadi is a mass leader and she from the very beginning had gauged the importance of social media - be it Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or WhatsApp.

Even if she conducts a rally with two lakh people she believes in posting a Facebook message or a tweet," Brien, who himself has more than six lakh followers in Twitter, said. Brien said that apart from regular Facebook and Twitter posts, the party from next week would use YouTube and other platforms as well.

"We will have small audio visual capsules which will be there in television channels and YouTube. We will use all forms of social media to reach out to the masses and propagate the developmental work," Brien said.

Several songs sung by renowned singers lauding the achievements of the TMC regime will also be made online in days to come.

PTI