Haryana leaders rely on social media to connect with voters

With Haryana Assembly polls is less than month away, leaders of various parties are going all out to make their presence felt on social media, especially on Facebook.

The political parties in Haryana, which used traditional media to reach to the voters in 2009 Assembly elections, are now using social media to connect with the voters. Several parties are even posting details of campaigning programmes, scans of advertisements and pictures on their Facebook pages.

The Haryana Jan Chetna Party (HJCP) and Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) alliance is also using social networking sites to establish a direct contact with the voters.

HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi's Facebook page stands second after Deepender Hooda's FB page in terms of followers.

Battleground

"Social Media has become a battleground for the political parties. Almost all parties of the state have launched digital media campaigns and social media websites. The voters are also being contacted via various mobile chat apps. Besides attacking each other, political parties are also attracting voters through digital media campaigns. The social media is also being misused for mud-slinging," says Haryana Jan Chetna party chief Venod Sharma.

The ruling Congress, which has set up its IT wing in Chandigarh at the party headquarters, updates the Facebook page of party chief Dr Ashok Tanwar two to three times a day. Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda also uses his FB page to reach out to the voters and has highest number of followers as compared to other parties.

Similarly, the BJP has established its IT and social media wing in Rohtak. Two grandsons of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal, Aditya Devi Lal, 37, and Anirudh Devi Lal,34, who joined BJP last month, have launched their own social media campaign "Yuva Bolega" (youth will speak) against their cousins.