WB: Impact of social media making politicians go online

Kolkata, March 21: With the growing power of

, politicians who had so far shied away from the digital medium are now increasingly interacting with the youth through Facebook and

this election season. It was only last week that the

committee of the CPI(M) launched their official Facebook page and Twitter handle to compete with the tech-savvy Trinamool Congress.

CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose said campaigning through the social media platform is an effective way to interact with common people as the party can answer their queries and even accept substantial criticism in a positive and timely manner.

Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee already has more than 650,000 'likes' on Facebook while the party's national spokesperson Derek O'Brien has more than 200,000 followers on Twitter. Besides this, the party has a regularly-updated website and accounts on both Twitter and Facebook to woo voters.

"As a regional party, we are far ahead of all others in West Bengal in terms of digital outreach. We focus on 360 degree communication and stay in touch with people by using all available platforms for communication - from street meetings to posters, stage events to electronic and print media. And now it has stretched to social media platforms too," Derek told PTI.

He said the party will roll out special election material on the social media platforms next week. With less than 8,000 'likes' on Facebook, West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee is lagging behind others in the number game. The state CPI(M) has more than 14,000 'likes' while Trinamool's official Facebook page is a close competitor with more than 13,000 'likes'.

PTI