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The small blue bird is soaring high in the social media world and is tweeting around across the entire web. The 140 character platform has given thoughts a life and breaking the barriers of distance they have travelled ubiquitously round the globe. Twitter has become a buzz word in the media world. While the celebrities, blogoshphere and the business people have already integrated Twitter use in their daily affairs, Politicians too are slowly getting tech savvy, tweeting their campaigns and rallies on Twitter, along with a sneak peek into their softer side as a normal being.

One major driving wheel for the politicians towards this direction was the Obama campaign and after its grand success many politicians have been trying to make their online presence felt and sustained. India too is in the league of nations that are rapidly adopting the Twitter phenomenon and the Indian politicians are no way behind.

Ever since Mr. Shashi Tharoor, Minister of state external affairs made headlines with his controversial tweet, Twitter won great attention amongst the political class. Slowly realizing the potential of the microblogging site, politicians found just the perfect opportunity to pounce on and Twitter became a major media to express their opinions. Its quite worthy to note how Indian politics has adopted the web and a number of leaders and MPs now have Twitter profiles which are often updated regularly for the followers. So lets have a look at some of the eminent political leaders of India and their Twitter profiles. (All the profiles have not been verified by the Twitter guys but looking at their tweets and the follower lists I just hope I landed on the true profiles.)

1.)    @ShashiTharoor: Shashi Tharoor, a respected politician from Indian National Congress and currently serving as the Minister of State for External Affairs. He currently has 645, 715 followers that are counting each day.

2.)    @narendramodi : Narendra Modi – Chief Minister of Gujarat has 11,152 followers. Modi is one of the most tech-savvy politicians of India and you will always see his personal assistants carrying his laptop and palmtop at all times. He spends major hours browsing the internet on either the laptops or his high end mobile phones.

3.)     @ksudhakaranMP: K Sudhakaran ex-minister Kerala, now a congress MP from Kannur has 6926 followers on Twitter. The politician has a mass political base and is open to the use of latest technologies. When Dubai crisis was ominous, he fervently used Twitter to comfort the Indians saying that the country could not be affected by the crisis and cited the thoughts of NRIs and other business men.

4.)    @SMKrishnaCong: SM Krishna, currently serving as the Minister for External Affairs. He has 7973 followers on Twitter.

5.)    @rajeev_mp : Rajeev Chandrasekhar is an Independent Member of Parliament in the upper house of Rajya Sabha. He represents Karnataka state and Bangalore Urban district. He is very active on the internet, with his website, and of course, tweets  and currently has 1435 followers on the microblogging site.

6.)    @mallikasarabhai :  Dr Mallika Sarabhai, independent candidate for Lok Sabha Elections 2009 from Gandhinagar. Gujarat-based activist, development worker, social entrepreneur and perf ormer , Mallika Sarabhai is multitalented lady, well recognized for her works in the country as well abroad. Since she has used every medium—dance, theatre, television, film, writing and publishing for her work, Twitter was another medium added to the list. She currently has 893 followers.

7.)    @CaptainGopinath – Karnataka’s Independent Candidate Captain Gopinath’s Twitter profile has an obvious green kite (his symbol) used as the background. But after he lost the in the recent elections, his tweeting frequency is just coming to a little halt. He has 400 followers at present.(no active tweets)

8.)    @meerasanyal: Mumbai’s Independent Candidate Meera Sanyal.  She is a professional banker for the past 25 years and is currently the Chairperson and Country Executive for ABN AMRO Bank. She has 383 followers on Twitter.

9.)    @krishnabgowda: Karnataka Politician Krishna Byre Gowda is one of the promising upcoming politicians from Karnataka. He is currently the Youth Congress President for Karnataka, and serving his third term in the State Legislature. He has 359 followers on Twitter.

10.) @kalmadisuresh: Suresh Kalmadi is also a politician and businessman from India. He has 123 Twitter followers.

11.) @rajeevgowda : Karnataka Politician Rajeev Gowda’s Twitter Page. He is Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and now a member of the Congress Party. He currently has 91 followers.

12.) @bjp_: Bhartiya Janata Party Twitter page has1075 followers and gives you the latest press releases, new campaigns and the news surrounding the political party.

I really miss Rahul Gandhi, Mr. Advani, Sonia Gandhi and few others here. But these politicians are not away from the social media world as some of them do have their Facebook profiles while the others have official websites where they interact with the public. From making the news viral, giving more transparency in the conduct of politicians, closer account with the pulse of the people and bringing the different facets of the life of the political leaders, Twitter has created a new wave in the Indian politics. Its really interesting to watch the politics and the technology work together for the common man.

Image source: toonpool, 2.bp.blogspot, wpimg, moneymint