Huge fan following for Jagan on Facebook

Some leaders achieve iconic status in a remarkably short span of time. They raise the bar of mass appeal.

YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is one such popular public figure. Jagan's name is synonymous with success and popularity, cutting across time and space in both the real and virtual worlds. The following he enjoys in the virtual world is legendary and without parallel for a leader of his age. He is one leader that the youth of the state scattered across the world, identify themselves with. And one public figure who holds unrivaled appeal for older people and women, as well.

A classic example of Jagan's popularity and widespread appeal can be seen on the most popular social networking site, Facebook. Users profess their undying love for their idols on fb. Try typing Jagan's name on Facebook in the search bar and it throws up scores of aliases. Similarly, when Jagan's photo gets uploaded, it sparks off thousands of likes and comments.

As a youth icon, Jagan has surpassed some of the biggest celebrities on Facebook. This is quite obvious from the number of photos and videos being uploaded everyday onto his name. There are a host of accounts in his name ranging from — Jagan will be back soon to Jagan is the leader to Jagan, the Lion to Politics.

 Here's a peek into some interesting wall posts put up for Jagan by his fans and followers:

• Whenever I open Facebook, I immediately post Jagan Anna's photo first under different  titles like Jagan in Odarpuyartra and Jagan with public, I am sure to get hundreds of likes and comments immediately. Even when I simply upload Jagan photo with the title of good morning or good afternoon, it evokes many hits.    - Rafeeq Ur Rahaman, employee, Convergys

•  Another case is that of Jnanavalli (name changed on request), who closely follows developments related to Jagan. She keeps her webpage (created in Jagan's name) updated with news on him and shares thousands of his pictures. "I am a big fan of YS.Rajasekhara Rreddy and of course his successor, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for the past twenty years. My age is 65 and I have grandchildren too. But at this age, my inclination to join Facebook is only to share Jagan's photos and videos. In my entire life, Jagan is the only person I have seen who cares for senior citizens." She is also optimistic about Jagan's release.

• Konda Surendhar Reddy, a follower of Jagan, who hadn't shared anything about Jagan till recently, says, "I am a great follower of Jagan Anna and am looking forward to seeing him soon. In the beginning, I would share photos of celebrities which elicited lukewarm response. However, I noticed that my friends who had posted the photos of Jagan got instant hits in hundreds. From then on, my focus shifted to Jagan. This helped me create a buzz on fb and invite comments from friends."

• A staunch supporter of Jagan, who did not want to reveal his name said: "Just a day back, I updated my Facebook status to who will be next CM? Within a matter of minutes, I was shocked to see replies and comments from friends screaming at me with questions like — Are you mad? Do you have sense? The entire world knows the answer to this question and you are ignorant! Jagan will be  the next CM."

That is not all. There are thousands of users (fans), who are the beneficiaries of YSR's schemes  such as fee reimbursement and Arogyasri, who have created their profiles in the name of Jagan. New users claim that creating a Facebook account in the name of Jagan takes at least two hours as all permutations and combinations of user names with the prefix or suffix Jagan are already in use!

The charismatic appeal of Jagan is such that it'll take you all day to create a user name with his name as a tag!

- Siva@sakshipost