By Amit Tiwari
Jamshedpur: Online election campaign by candidates is fueling up the election heat in Jamshedpur Lok Sabha constituency as candidates have taken to �web battle� in a bid to maximize their winning chances on the D-day.
Leaving nothing to chance are some of the most talked about candidates who are making some quick publicity gains on their facebook accounts as they go on counting their pluses on the social networking sites. As one talks about battling it out on the Net, Dr Ajoy Kumar is surely not the guy you would miss as he and his team of publicity pundits are all huddled up to squeeze out benefits of online social networking potential.
No wonder Dr Ajoy has managed to get 19,845 likes on his facebook account with 8847 persons talking about him in the last couple of months. The number of likes has gone up in the last few weeks as the sitting MP and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha candidate from Jamshedpur has been continuously updating his account. Dr Ajoy has declared a special agenda for Adivasis and their uplift while counting his achievements in rural and urban parts of the constituency. In all he has announced 20 agenda for the next 60 months.
In a unique way, the JVM leader has been putting up his report card on his facebook account ever since the election notification was issued. He makes special mention of solar light installation, pond renovation, his high rate of attendance in the Lok Sabha and raising of development and civic amenity issues and assistance extended by him to patients and poor people in getting healthcare and civic amenities on demand.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha candidate Niroop Mohanty too, is not too far behind in counting his achievements before the social media. On his facebook account �Niroop Mohanty JMM Fans Club�, a glimpse of his adventurous spirit may be had with info on his �becoming the first Indian civilian to fly a military aircraft� and his passion for flying aircrafts. The former vice president (HR) of Tata Steel, could however have improved his facebook presence with more updates on his take on Jamshedpur and its issues from the point of view of an aspiring MP. His very recent account has nine likes with eight persons talking about it.
Arguably the most lagging behind among the candidates is Bharatiya Janata Party�s Vidyut Varan Mahato who is a ghost figure on the social networking sites as he is nowhere to be seen on facebook and other social networking sites. Sporadic articles may be found here and there, leading one to assume he is banking mostly on his offline campaigning.
Other candidates among the 15 in fray enjoy more or less the same online status as that of Vidyut Varan when it comes to online campaigning and canvassing. Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampat had recently said that normally, posting on social networking sites by candidates will not be taken as a violation of the Model Code of Conduct by them. But few candidates have utilized this opportunity, it seems.
