The Uttar Pradesh assembly election is due only in 2017 but supporters of various Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in the northern state have already begun using social networking site Facebook, among other media, to promote their favourites as the chief ministerial candidate.

There is also some Facebook activity promoting particular BJP leaders as the next Delhi chief minister. Though elections have yet to be called, they seem inevitable: no party has a clear majority in the assembly or has proved able to put together a viable coalition. The state has been under the charge of lieutentant governor Najeeb Jung since the Aam Aadmi Party's Arjun Kejriwal resigned as chief minister in February.

Most of these social media accounts were created after the general election results were announced in May. Senior BJP leaders are not happy about this lobbying, but have no way of stopping it.

Some examples.

UTTAR PRADESH

Varun Gandhi


Youth BJP leader Varun Gandhi, who was elected as the MP from Sultanpur earlier this year, leads the Facebook contest, with as many as seven pages promoting him as the chief ministerial candidate.

His official page has more than 4.8 lakh followers and "likes".

Seven other pages created to promote him also have gung-ho slogans about him. The Varun Gandhi-Next CM of Uttar Pradesh page is the most active of them, with more than 7,530 "likes".

Responding to the buzz on social media, Gandhi thanked his supporters and said that he would continue to serve them and the people of UP in whatever capacity possible. However, he declined to comment on his chances of being chosen as the chief ministerial candidate.

Amit Shah


The newly appointed president of BJP has five pages promoting his candidature. The pages have titles that are only minor variations of each other, such as "I support Amit Shah for UP CM", "Amit Shah for UP CM" and  "Amit Shah the next CM of UP."  Shah’s page has more likes, at 11,266.

Not surprisingly, fans of the two leaders are sparring with each other on social media about why their man is the more deserving candidate.

Others

A few other leaders also have Facebook fan pages. Pankaj Singh, the UP general secretary, has three pages promoting him, while the fiery MP Yogi Adityanath, has two – "Yogi Adityanathji CM for UP" and "Yogi Adityanathji for CM of Purvanchal". The national vice-president Kalyan Singh and his MP son Rajveer have one each, but their supporters number only in the hundreds.


DELHI

Jagdish Mukhi


Veteran BJP leader and four-time MLA from Janakpuri Jagdish Mukhi has three pages promoting him as the chief ministerial candidate in Delhi. Mukhi claimed he had nothing to do with the pages.

"Every supporter wants his leader to become the CM," he said. "Mine too wish the same thing. I cannot stop them."