In a bid to strike the right chord with the Internet-generation ahead of the coming Assembly polls, local leaders are spending about two hours daily on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter to reach out to the masses.
Taking it to be the need of the hour, leaders of both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party are going the ‘e-way’ to campaign these days.
The parties have formed special teams to look after the online campaign and are keen on targeting the youth. Notably, Facebook and several other social networking sites played a major role in Arab-revolution.
According to the statistics, about 40 per cent of voters in the capital are below 30 years. Therefore, in order to lure the youth the parties have chosen the Facebook way to address them. The parties have asked their workers, officials, MLAs and councillors to “stay-connected” with voters in their respective areas.
Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel himself is active on Facebook and is followed by at least 5 lakh people while the BJP page has a following of about 2.5 lakh people.
The party has directed its councillors and MLAs to befriend local people and tag them in development works done in the area.
Both the BJP and Congress are addressing the problems of locals via Twitter and Facebook which is helping them strike a chord with the voters.
“Social networking sites are important, and we can connect with the youth via this,” Mr Goel said.
The Congress is also not very far behind. It has appointed a special team to manage Facebook and Twitter accounts. DPCC chief J.P. Aggarwal said, “We want to connect with the people and social networking sites are a hit. We are addressing problems of people with the help of these sites.”