Social media stars: Tamil Nadu

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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, Congress 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 Kerala.