Summary:
Dehradun: With less than a month to go for the polling in Uttarakhand, the social media has become the hotbed for political wrangling. Not only the workers of BJP and Congress, but the supporters of both the rival parties are locking horns.BJP seems to have taken a lead in the virtual war when it comes to followers on Facebook. A dedicated team of 30 core members are engaged besides which two members in each assembly is active on the virtual platform.“So, almost 170 members are ensuring our social media presence,” the social media in-charge of BJP Uttarakhand, Ravindra Petwal told TOI, while also mentioning that in the days ahead, the social battle will only intensify.“Most of the youth, at least 80% of them, are more active on FB than Twitter. So they are our target audience and we are way ahead of Congress in that zone, people are really liking our live videos,” he said.However, denying that BJP is ahead on FB reach, the Congress party said that it is much more active on Twitter and alleged that followers can be bought and there is “foul play”. It has over a lakh followers on its official page --BJP Uttarakhand-- against 16,628 followers on Congress’ official Facebook page -- Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress.Even as the hashtag #Harish_Rawat_Phir_Se started trending on Twitter before Rahul Gandhi’s Rishikesh visit, and thousands of followers took to the social media to state reasons why Rawat should win, BJP took to FB to share posts on development activities under Narendra Modi and saluting men in defence forces from the state.“We have been actively making inroads on the social media for the past 7-8 months, unlike Congress which is trying to get active now and it shows on our Facebook page..