Ghaziabad: As the date for polling in Noida and Gautam Budh Nagar — April 11 — nears, along with door to door campaigns, candidates of several parties have also become active on social media , especially Facebook BJP’s Ghaziabad candidate Dolly Sharma said social media has become a major tool to reach out to masses and has a big impact on voters. “Now, social media is not limited to urban areas. People living in villages and far-flung areas are also on it and keep a keen watch on developments. Even elderly people, who can’t leave their houses frequently, have become active on social media these days,” she added.Dolly has built a social media team to ensure her messages and content are vetted and uploaded on time.Besides sharing videos of her visits across the constituency, she raises national and local issues on the platform. She has over 1.13 lakh followers on Facebook. However, her Twitter account, with just 28 followers, is lying dormant for some time.In contrast, the SP-BSP candidate for Ghaziabad, Suresh Bansal, has just around 5,800 followers on Facebook and no Twitter account, while the GB Nagar Congress candidate Arvind Singh’s Facebook page has 173k likes. He also recently started an Instagram page and a website: http://www.arvindkumarsingh.com/- for his poll campaign. He routinely shares video messages and photos of his campaigns, and urges people, especially youth to vote for him. On his website, he promises to solve issues of jobs, rural distress, education, women’s security, waste management, public transport, etc.Lakhmi Singh, the GB Nagar president of BSP, said the party prefers working on the ground. “Our candidate has his own Facebook page which is handled by his team. We’re working more on physical outreach,” he said. The GB Nagar BSP candidate, Satveer Nagar, has around 8,000 likes on Facebook.As in 2014, BJP appears far ahead of its opponents on social media in both NCR cities. Sitting Ghaziabad MP General (retired) V K Singh has over 1.8 million likes on Facebook and over 1.5 followers on Twitter, while sitting GB Nagar MP Mahesh Sharma has 181k followers on Twitter. He also follows over 500 people, including PM Modi and other Union ministers.Mahesh Sharma uses Twitter to attack opponents and share his thoughts, views and information on government schemes.“Congress gave the slogan: ‘Garibi Hatao’ but made the poor poorer. The Modi government has worked to eliminate poverty in the true sense, elevating 7.5 crore people from the BPL (below poverty line) in three years,” he tweeted on Sunday. Both BJP leaders also share their schedule of campaign in sectors and villages on Twitter, along with photos and details of meetings held.BJP sources said they are also circulating videos on WhatsApp of Mahesh Sharma’s development works in the district and of PM’s speeches. BJP workers are also using the “Chowkidar” caller tune: “Mai Desh Ke Vikas Me Chota Sa Bhagidar Hun... Ab Mai Bhi Chowkidar Hun”.SDM Dadri Rajeev Rai, who is also the assistant returning officer, said the Noida cyber cell and media certification and monitoring committee (MCMC) are keeping a watch on social media. “We’ve sensitised parties to stick to the model code. So far, we haven’t found any social media violations,” he said.

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