With nearly five lakh followers, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister is making full use of his micro-blogging site for poll-related messages as the two arch political rivals — National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party — have taken their fight to social media for the Lok Sabha elections in the state that will start from April 10.
While Abdullah has 475,000 followers on Twitter, his party NC has mere 1,800 followers as against PDP’s 1,044 followers.
Realising the big publicity potential of social media, these heavyweights of regional politics of J&K are using Twitter and Facebook to reach out to a wider audience, particularly the youth of the valley.
Working president of NC, Abdullah is a pioneer among the state’s politicians using social media. He has used his personal Twitter account to comment on the latest developments in the state and elsewhere in the world and also to post pictures and videos of election rallies since the Election Commission announced the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls.
The active use of social media by the two parties is attributed to the entry of two young leaders. While NC wooed Junaid Azim Mattu into its ranks ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and appointed him as spokesman, Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra joined PDP and is currently its youth president.
The NC has started using the site to post videos and photographs of election meetings at various places in the valley and Jammu region.
The Opposition party fares better on Facebook with nearly 3,100 likes compared to just 2,000 of the ruling NC.