SOCIAL MEDIA STARS: Last month, #whyiluvDMK started trending nationally on Twitter. Though it attracted the odd 2G spectrum scam-related barbs, the trend can be seen as a reflection of the growing clout of the party, DMK, on social media platforms. Though not as active as national politicians, both 93-year-old party leader M Karunanidhi and son M K Stalin have active handles and are among the most popular Tamil political leaders on the platform as far as the number of followers is concerned. Among others, BJP, and PMK have a decent following. DMDK’s Vijaykanth is a butt of jokes on the internet for his comments and mannerisms, but is conspicuous by his absence on Twitter. Surprisingly, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK, which is seen as a favourite in some early opinion polls, is a laggard on social media. With Tamil Nadu set to see Assembly polls on May 16, would this prove costly for Amma? In a four-part series, N Sundaresha Subramanian looks at social media stars in poll-bound states of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and .

M KARUNANIDHI M K STALIN President, DMK Treasurer, DMK Twitter Handle: @kalaignar89 Twitter Handle: @mkstalin Tweets No. of followers Tweets No. of followers 5,742 73.4K 1,247 71.9K

PON TAMILISAI RADHAKRISHNAN SOUNDARARAJAN Union minister, Bharatiya (BJP) Tamil Nadu President, BJP Twitter Handle: @PonnaarrBJP Twitter Handle: @drtamilisaibjp Tweets No. of followers Tweets No. of followers 1,487 18.6K 2,084 18.2K

ANBUMANI S RAMADOSS RAMADOSS Founder, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) President-youth wing, PMK Twitter Handle: @drramadoss Twitter Handle: @draramadoss Tweets No. of followers Tweets No. of followers 2,720 16.5K 603 12.8K

KARTI E V K S ELANGOVAN CHIDAMBARAM President, TN Congress TN Congress Twitter Handle: @EVKSElangovan Twitter Handle: @KartiPC Tweets No. of followers Tweets No. of followers 769 11.2K 8,059 10.7K

KANIMOZHI VAIKO DMK Leader, MDMK Twitter Handle: @KanimozhiDMK Twitter Handle: @VaikoMdmk Tweets No. of followers Tweets No. of followers 173 6,312 313 4,006

PARTY HANDLES BJP (TAMIL NADU) TAMIL NADU CONGRESS Twitter Handle: @tamilnadubjp Twitter Handle: @TN_PCC Tweets No. of followers Tweets No. of followers 8,358 33.1K 3,217 8,273

DMK PARTY OFFICIAL AIADMK Twitter Handle: @arivalayam Twitter Handle: @AIADMKOfficial Tweets No. of followers Tweets No. of followers 7,578 11.4K 3,308 16.9K

MDMK INTERNET WING DMDK SOCIAL MEDIA Twitter Handle: @mdmkiw Twitter Handle: @DMDKsocialmedia Tweets No. of followers Tweets No. of followers 2,879 4,483 284 243

DMK: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam; AIADMK: All Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam; DMDK: Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam; MDMK: Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam; PMK: Pattali Makkal Katchi; BJP: Source: Twitter