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Patna:Politicians are increasingly using social networking sites as a tool to further their political agenda and the latest to join the bandwagon is Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

When Nitish Kumar launched his campaign for special status for Bihar, he used social networking site Facebook to create awareness about the demand.

Not just his own account, there are at least three accounts set up by the chief minister's followers on the Facebook with 1.33 lakh supporters following him on these accounts and exchanging views about their leader.

Apart from Facebook, the Bihar chief minister has also set up a blog to publicise his political views. It has as many as 2,273 followers.

His arch rival and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, though not a big fan of the social networking sites, also has a Facebook account set up in his name by one of his supporters and has 4,199 followers.

Nitish Kumar's aide Sanjay Jha, a former BJP MLC said the chief minister had not been able to express his views on the blog over the past two years due to hectic engagements, but will soon communicate with his supporters on another blog, christened as 'Nitishspeaks.blogpost.in'.

Besides, a website 'cm.bih.nic.in' is a platform where the Chief Minister's supporters can give their feedback on various public issues, he said.

Several ministers in the Nitish Kumar government like rural development minister Nitish Mishra, information technology minister Shahid Ali Khan and social welfare minister Parveen Amanullah have also joined the social networking sites and are being followed by hundreds of supporters.

Mr Mishra, who is a JD(U) MLA from Jhanjharpur Assembly seat, said that the social networking sites had been useful in getting feedback from the people about successful implementation of the centrally-sponsored schemes like MNREGA and IAY and addressing discrepancies wherever there are problems in execution of the popular schemes.

The internet and social networking sites have also put the officials on tenterhooks all the time as they cannot any longer hide deficiencies in implementation of these schemes and the facts on the ground could be easily corroborated by the local people, he said.

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Bihar netas log onto social networking sites