Saidai Duraisamy, a hit on Facebook

CHENNAI:  Though both the mayor candidates for the upcoming elections are on social networking sites to woo young voters, it seems like it is the AIADMK nominee Saidai Sa Duraisamy who has caught the fancy of youngsters largely. Many youngsters have not only wished Duraisamy in advance for his victory, but have also expressed confidence and hope in him to bring about a change in the city.“Impeccable is the word to describe Saidai Sa Duraisamy, our future mayor of Chennai. With huge potential comes greater responsibility and people have confidence that he will make Chennai the best city in the world. “Stand with him and cast your vote for the two leaves symbol,” goes the post by Hariharan Naidu, Managing director of Gajendraa Electric Company, on Saidai Duraiswamy's wall. Meanwhile, incumbent mayor and DMK candidate Ma Subramanian has 516 friends on his page and 24 subscriptions to his page. Perhaps as an image-building exercise, he has uploaded 24 pictures of himself, including those of him visiting flooded areas in the city, distributing welfare schemes to senior citizens and examining the development work. On his information page on Facebook, Subramanian has given details describing his political career and has categorically stated his belief in treading former deputy CM MK Stalin's footsteps in converting Chennai to ‘Singara Chennai’. However, he did not seem to have earned a single post on his wall wishing him for contesting the elections for the second time for the mayor post. On the contrary, Saidai Duraisamy's page on Facebook has many wall posts from people from various backgrounds including engineers, youngsters working in private companies and IAS aspirants, wishing him to win the election. As chairman of the Manidhanaeyam Trust,  Saidai Duraisamy has helped hundreds of IAS aspirants undergo training free of cost. He also posed a tough challenge to M K Stalin in the Kolathur constituency in the assembly elections earlier this year. While he did not visit every household in the constituency, IAS aspirants campaigned for him.Interestingly, his Facebook page is contemporary when compared to Subramanian's, as he has been included as top ten Best Friend’s Forever Award, in a collage of friends, and on various posts by youngsters who subscribe to his page. He has 821 followers, has uploaded 146 photos. On his information page, he has listed former Chief Minister MGR as his favourite, and in the entertainment column, Duraisamy has said that he likes actor Surya.This apart, a separate page called Vote for Chennai Mayor is also being used to campaign for him.