Even as the walls of the city start donning hues symbolising the upcoming political clash being touted as the end of communism in West Bengal, walls of a different kind have become the debating ground for voters and leaders alike, looking to vent and garner support respectively.
In West Bengal, both Facebook and Twitter are picking up on the election cacophony on three basic levels. First, politicians have made use of the social networking websites for garnering support and whipping up discussions.
Among others, personalities like West Bengal commerce and industries minister Nirupam Sen, CPI(M) veteran and West Bengal tourism minister, Manab Mukherjee, Mamata loyalist and quizmaster, Derek O’ Brian and first time assembly hopeful Manish Gupta are present and active on the virtual world of networking.
Manab Mukherjee, for example has over 5,000 friends on Facebook. He uses the forum not just for communicating his plan of action after not being given a ticket, but has updated posts questioning the Mamata Banerjee’s ‘Paribartan’ (change) campaign.
“Price rise?’ Paribartan' hobe na...Corruption? ‘Paribartan’ hobe na...State Govt? ‘Paribartan’ korte hobe’”, read a recent Facebook post, which roughly means, “no change against inflation, or corruption, the sole change the opposition wants is against the state government in Bengal”.
From the Trinamool Congress scheme of things, the face of social networking is Derek O’Brien, one of the faces of Banerjee’s ‘Paribartan’ campaign, has taken the Twitter route often for activities ranging from canvassing to making announcements about seat allocation.
“Soooon…candidate list will be announced by Mamata Banerjee to the Press in Kalighat...also will go up on www.aitmc.org; still a battle to be won...every vote counts,” O’Brien’s who has over 7,000 tweets and about 29,500 followers tweeted recently.
Also pre-dominant are ‘fake’ accounts- celebrities politicians across political parties left and right of the centre have online doppelgangers. Chief ministerial candidate and Trinamool Congress (TMC) head Mamata Banerjee, not a Twitterati herself has there fake accounts running in her name on Facebook and on Twitter.
These pages are run by followers and often unofficially by party personnel to keep leaders in the “loop” of the young voters.
So while Rahul Gandhi, who campaigned extensively for the youth Congress elections, might have kept himself away from Facebook and Twitter fake accounts keep his presence steady there.
Groups, relating to both support and hate form the third and by virtue of them enhancing participation the most important social networking activity on Facebook.
The fact that approximately 4000 people support Mamata Banerjee fan pages is common knowledge but more recently a Facebook group, “We hate Mamata Banerjee” has gathered support as well.
“Bankrupt Banerjee…spineless Manmohan”, wrote Subhshish Banerjee on the group’s homepage recently, while another group supporter questioned her honesty.
“Is it not proved already that she is hand in glove with Maoists? There is no clarity on education and healthcare policies”, ranted Saugata Sarkar.
Also updated on the group homepage was a scanned copy of a letter by the Railways Board, dated about a year back, accusing the minister of having spent more money on inauguration and party functions than allowed-an indication again of Facebook being used as a domain for sharing “secret” information.
“Social networking platforms afford a thinking politician the space to connect and initiate dialogue with voters in the 18-35 age groups. The fact that the media is tracking every celebrity’s move on social networking means it is also a device for idea dissemination”, advertising and marketing honcho Suhel Seth said, explaining the medium’s viability.
On Facebook, a Mamata Banerjee support page now has over 1600 members while the Trinamool Congress across multiple pages have in excess of 3000 supporters, which for CPI(M) means a drubbing in the virtual world.
Chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has just 400 supporters on Facebook, while the CPI(M) has about 2000 support members only.
