CHANDIGARH: Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi's presence and reach on social media has risen manifold since he took over the post of Punjab chief minister in September last year.
However, he continues to be far behind other popular political faces from Punjab, like party colleague and Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, Punjab Lok Congress leader Capt Amarinder Singh and Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Sample this: On September 20, the day the first scheduled caste (SC) CM of Punjab assumed charge of his office, Channi's followers on Instagram were just 2,544. However, by Tuesday, the number of his Instagram followers had risen to 1,10,000.
On the photo and video-sharing platform, Sidhu has 1,64,000 followers, Sukhbir has 1,13,000 followers and Amarinder has 2,11,000 followers.
On Twitter, Channi's followers have risen nearly 18 times, from just 12,000 on September 20 to 2,14,400 now. Earlier, Channi wasn't active on Twitter and did not even have a "blue tick", which indicates a verified profile.
On the micro-blogging website, Sidhu has 1 million, or 10 lakh, followers, Sukhbir has 4. 16 lakh followers, and Amarinder has 11 lakh followers. The rise in the number of followers on Facebook has not been as sharp for Channi as on Instagram and Twitter. On Facebook, the number of people who like his page have risen from 74,000 on September 20 to 2,78,741 now. The number of followers are 4. 54 lakh.
On the social-networking website, Amarinder has 13 lakh followers, Sidhu has 17 lakh followers and Sukhbir has 23 lakh followers. Channi also gained a lot of followers on Facebook after Congress announced him as its CM candidate on Sunday. Till Saturday, he had just 2. 14 lakh likes on his Facebook page. These rose to 2. 75 lakh by Tuesday evening.
Given that it has been just five months since Channi came in the limelight, his social media presence is expected to only rise further.
