PANAJI
The door-to-door campaigns in their respective constituencies may be on, but apart from that, politicians have taken extensively to social media to get the attention of voters. From photographs and description of their corner meetings, to live casting their press conferences, parties have joined the social media bandwagon.
The Congress is leading with the most followers on Facebook, but with the least on Twitter. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), known to get trending on Twitter with hashtags like Zhaadu Yatra and AAPinGoa, has managed to attract 11,236 followers.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) on Facebook has a total of 2.34 lakh followers with an average of 4,084 likes per week. AAPGoa Facebook page has 1.29 lakh page follows with an average of 3,733 page likes and BJPGoa through its Facebook page has a total of 1.01 lakh page follows with 3,452 average likes per week.
BJP also stands out for having active pages for constituencies including Vasco, Tivim, Canacona, Porvorim, Bicholim, Mandrem Sanvordem and Panaji. But even though Congress has the most followers, BJP is more active with an average of over 20 posts per day including videos promoting their schemes.
Regional party Goa Forward has created a buzz of its own, in the initial days taking up issues like declassification of the coconut tree with its 12,153 followers on Twitter and 30,903 followers on Facebook.
Goa Forward’s Vijai Sardesai seems to be the most popular social media politician getting more Twitter followers than any party in the State (16,718 followers) and over 10,000 followers on Facebook. BJP’s Michael Lobo leads the candidates with 1.01 lakh followers on Facebook. Their Fatorda candidate Damu Naik has 27,427 followers of which he receives 460 likes per week.
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on his private account has only 1,025 followers on Twitter but under the CMO handle, has 7,907 followers. On Facebook he has over 82,000 followers.
Porvorim’s independent candidate Rohan Khaunte isn’t doing badly with his 6,000 Facebook followers and 1,732 Twitter followers.
