Nara Lokesh and K.T. Rama Rao are often pitted against each other, for obvious reasons – they have similar backgrounds, they’re IT Ministers of the two Telugu states, and they’re both sons of Chief Ministers. In the past, Lokesh has dismissed such comparisons stating that the difference in their age puts them in different brackets. KTR is in his 40s and he has quite a bit of experience behind him, while Lokesh, who is in his 30s, has a lot to learn. Lokesh fails to realise that he has one major advantage – the attractive quality of youth. Unfortunately, instead of developing a vibrant presence for himself on social media, he’s boring and mechanical — like old folks! So much so that you can even predict with relative certainty when he’s going to put out his next monotonous tweet.
Every single day, Lokesh tweets about the grievances heard by him at the secretariat as well as meetings with officials and companies. Send him your grievance online and you’re almost certain to receive “Will direct the concerned authorities to resolve this issue soon” as a response. Nowadays even bots can do better than that!
I’m not sure who handles Lokesh’s handle but as far as KTR’s handle is concerned, the Minister himself handles it and that is the main reason why there’s a personal touch. The team might help him, but ultimately it is the minister who replies. All those witty replies he does it himself. That’s what separates our minister from any other politician
— Dileep Konatham, Digital Media director and manages TS government twitter handles
Occasionally, you’ll see some tweets promoting work done by the TDP and some lashing out at Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. He even has message templates for birthdays and festivals! Meanwhile, KTR seems to be doing a much better job of using social media to connect with people.
Though he does tend to publicise an awful lot of pictures from government programs and events that he’s attending, you’ll also find relatable quotes, movie reviews, comic strips and comments on cricket and football matches on his profile. Sometimes, he’ll even take light-hearted digs at followers, celebrities and friends. And the birthday messages and greetings that he sends out always have a personal touch. By engaging his followers in conversations, he has managed to grow his following to millions.
It’s important to respond to messages of the common man immediately and in their language. KTR, on twitter itself, holds authorities responsible by tagging the commissioners or collectors and asks them to report instead of just saying ‘my office, or I will look into it’. He also adds a pinch of humour to his responses. People like balanced politicians who can speak in their language and be more like a common man. Movies and sports — people in AP and TS are crazy about. The moment you speak on such topics, you already strike a chord with the common man. It’s important for politicians to be people-friendly, start responding to both stupid and intellectual requests, instead of ignoring them. Never should a politician display an attitude of being great; people won’t accept. He should be witty. Ultimately it boils down to the image that the politician is trying to create for himself
— Rajiv Aluri, social media manager at popular Telugu channel
Lokesh surely has a thing or two to learn from KTR. A quick look at their profiles will tell you what a long way he has to go. The leaders have both pinned similar tweets asking people to send them their grievances. And while KTR’s has been liked by about 8,200 people, Lokesh’s has only been liked by 913. This is probably a direct reflection of the number of followers they have — KTR has 1.28 million followers, while Lokesh has 458,000.
Another thing that KTR is doing right is making sure that he acknowledges and implements people’s suggestions. He recently shared a picture of people dumping blankets into nalas, and GHMC workers removing them. Several Twitter users were quick to point out that the GHMC workers were not wearing gloves and that it posed a health hazard. The minister immediately ordered the GHMC to provide shoes and gloves to its workers, and he even talked about the incident at an event. He said, “While I was trying to moral police people, I was reproached for the lack of provisions made available to GHMC workers”.
Meanwhile, Lokesh is trolled brutally and his profile is often flooded with morphed pictures. But even that isn’t enough to provoke an authentic response from him. If he hopes to come across as an approachable leader, he really needs to start being more responsive and engaging.
