Impact of Social Media Making Politicians Go Online
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'. The state BJP, also new to the social media, is going aggressive in the digital war. In a short time, its Twitter page has more than 11,000 followers while on Facebook they have more than 14,000 'likes'. "We want to spread our message to everyone and in the urban seats, the digital medium is very important. All our 42 candidates from West Bengal will have Facebook accounts," BJP state secretary Ritesh Tiwari said. Senior Congress leader Somen Mitra, in his seventies, also launched his Facebook and Twitter accounts last month to woo voters.
Updated on a day-to-day basis, he uses the medium to talk directly to voters on various issues of electoral significance. Marxist leaders like former state minister Nirupam Sen, newly-nominated Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Banerjee and Rabin Deb are already active on Facebook. Candidates from both Trinamool and CPI(M) are gradually opening up to face the virtual battle. To maintain a vigil, the Election Commission has also issued detailed guidelines for political advertisements on such platforms that include obtaining certification for contents before putting them in the public domain. The watchdog has also asked the social networking sites to maintain expenditure incurred by the political parties and individual candidates on advertisements so that they can be produced to the Commission when requested.
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