Social media abuzz with poll updates

Guwahati: On Monday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "Urging all those voting in West Bengal & Assam today to vote in large numbers. Young friends in particular must exercise their franchise."
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi was not far behind. His Facebook page posted the three-time chief minister's image with graphics saying, "Be a good citizen, cast your vote.It is your right." The Congress stalwart even added a video a few hours before the poll day asking people to vote for Congress to maintain peace, for better employment opportunity and women's empowerment. He tweeted, "Youths have the power to transform the nation into a better place so I appeal (to) our youth power to come forward and ensure your right to vote."
BJP's CM candidate Sarbananda Sonowal was featured in a tweet by BJP Assam Pradesh, in which he thanked the people of the state for their support and said, "Use your right. Go out and vote."
Former two-time CM and Asom Gana Parishad leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, too, took the opportunity and re-tweeted his colleague Keshab Mahanta's call to the people to cast their votes for the AGP-BJP alliance. The tweet in Assamese said, "Time has changed and now Assam will change too. Assam is now an insurgency-hit, flood-affected, industrially-backward land full of infiltrators. Your decision will bring the change."
Meanwhile, BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted and posted pictures of a rally held in Samuguri in Nagaon district. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, too, tweeted about his rally schedules in Goalpara, Dhubri and Bongaigaon.
It was not only politicians who took to social media sites. Citizens, too, posted feedback as well as 'selfies' on their virtual 'walls'. Ankita, who came all the way from Bengaluru to her hometown in Sivasagar to cast her vote, posted a 'selfie' sporting the indelible ink on her finger and captioned it, "My vote counts." Bitupon Borbora and his friends posted similar pictures and wrote, "Feeling proud."
Sangeeta Rabha, a social science researcher, said, "Globally, the power of the media to define politics has been forensically examined. It has been a constant endeavour of the torch-bearers of free opinion to ensure that social media does not remain just a propaganda tool at the behest of powers with vested interests but plays a larger role of creating informed citizens."