KCR, Naidu vie for top rank on Facebook

Hyderabad: Telangana CM Chandrashekar Rao with 2.7 lakh followers outscores Naidu with having just 32,000 followers when official CMO FB pages are considered, Naidu has another page ‘tdp.ncbn.official’, where he has nearly 4.59 lakh followers. As on Monday, ’Telangana CMO’ Facebook page, operated by IT department, had 2.7 lakh followers. Information about Rao’s meetings and key decisions are uploaded, along with pictures, on a daily basis on this page. The real time visitors to this page are found to be close to 32,000.

Netizens, especially with a Telangana connect, are found to be frequently flocking this page in the last one year since it was created. The interesting thing is that traffic to Telangana CMO’s page is generated from far-off countries like US, England, Australia besides Gulf nations, where sizable number of Telanganites reside.

Rao paying visit to 19-year old Pratyusha, who faced years of abuse from her step-mother and father, in a private hospital in LB Nagar on July 18 attracted as many as 12,271 likes while 1,588 FB users shared the news on their wall. Many posted comments hailing the humanitarian side of Rao for his decision to protect and provide better future for the tortured girl. 

Likewise, news of KCR couple visiting



Yellama Temple, Bandlaguda, and Ujjaini Mahankali Temple, Secunderabad for offering prayers also attracted many likes. Meanwhile, two FB pages on Naidu’s name, is leading to confusion among netizens. His official AP CM page, which constantly keeps updating his day-to-d-day activities, has less number of followers. 

However, the other page, where official postings have become less, especially in August, has a big following of over 4.5 lakh. Users are found to be frequently checking this page ignoring the other official page.The other FB page of Naidu ‘tdp.ncbn.official’ was created on July 9, the day he was sworn in as Chief Minister.

On the other hand, if CMO sites of other States are concerned, Madhya Pradesh CM (Shivraj Singh Chouhan) has 2.64 lakh followers on FB. Strangely, states like Maharashtra and Karnataka having top IT destinations including Pune and Bangalore respectively are lagging behind. 

While just 26,000 people follow Maharashtra CMO, Karnataka CMO is doing tad better with 58,000 followers.Delhi government does not have an official FB page for its Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. However, Kejriwal, who is very active on social media and has his own FB page since 2012 is followed by a staggering 6.4 million people.