Assembly election 2016: Virtual battleground heats up

Guwahati: With a few days to go for the assembly elections, the online war fought on the virtual battleground promises to be riveting. Political parties have taken to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter as extension of their campaigns.
Former Congress minister and current BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma appears much ahead of his rivals in Assam. The former health and education minister has more than 54,000 followers on Twitter while his Facebook page has garnered more than 1.51 lakh Likes.
Sarma does not just use online platforms for sharing political views. He retweets his followers' posts and launches the occasional attack on Congress or chief minister Tarun Gogoi.
Gogoi occupies the second position in the online race. The 79-year-old recently doubled his online activity. He also launched an interactive website a few weeks ago to "enhance interaction with the public."
"People can now reach out to me about various issues," Gogoi said after the formal launch.
Gogoi has almost 30,000 followers on Twitter and 60,000 Likes on Facebook. He has uploaded details of all development projects being undertaken by the government. He also shares his views against BJP.
Kaliabor MP and chief minister's son Gaurav Gogoi has been looking after all these initiatives with a team of experts. "Gogoi has also started conducting Google Hangouts sessions with citizens. This is a first for any NE chief minister and it's been a hit," said an insider.
BJP chief ministerial candidate and Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal lags behind in the race with a little over 13,000 followers. He has a strong Facebook following though, with more than 1.14 lakh Likes. Sonowal conducted a live chat with his followers on Facebook on March 21.
APCC president Anjan Dutta has been active on online platforms as well. Dutta has than 29,000 Likes on Facebook and his Twitter account has just over 4,000 followers.
Many politicians, however, have failed to make an impact in the virtual space. They do not fail to realize its importance though.
AIUDF chief and Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal has around 14,000 Facebook Likes and just over 3,000 Twitter followers. But he has engaged a team dedicated to his social media presence. Former two-time chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has only 524 followers on Twitter and has received about 2,500 likes on his official Facebook page.