JMM president Shibu Soren and his son, chief minister Hemant Soren, launch the party’s website in Ranchi on Tuesday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Sept. 9: The JMM today took a giant stride to keep pace with the changing times with the launch of its Facebook and Twitter accounts along with the party’s official website and a toll-free helpline.

Chief minister and party scion Hemant Soren and father Shibu Soren did the honours at a banquet hall in Ranchi’s Harmu a little after 6pm with the message that the new website, www.jharkhandmuktimorcha.org, and helpline number 8102111111 would enable the commoners know more about the JMM.

Also present were party leaders.

Although late, the party’s final awakening to the need to connect with the public via the Internet and social networking sites comes at a time the state is preparing for the Assembly elections scheduled sometime later this year.

Advised party members and workers to effectively use the helpline and JMM official portal for the expansion of the organisation, Hemant claimed: “The youth in particular looks up to the JMM with great expectations and the digital world will unify them.”

He further boasted that the party received over 7,000 missed calls before the helpline was formally declared open and the number exceeded 12,000 within an hour of the launch.

Ditto with the social sites. There were around 5,000 friend requests and over 250 likes on Facebook and several followers on Twitter even before these two were launched. The number steadily rose after the official ceremony.

Hemant himself called up the helpline to enquire how one can become a JMM member and where the membership fees need to be deposited besides tweeting his best wishes.

“In today’s fast-paced life, it is practically difficult to contact every individual in person. Most of these calls are related to seeking an appointment with me and the urge to spend time with JMM president Shibu Soren. This in itself proves that people have a lot of faith in the JMM. We should not let them down. We can reach out each of them in no time through this digital platform,” he added.

Shibu Soren stressed that though Jharkhand was blessed with immense natural resources, its residents got little benefits.

It was high time to make honest efforts to steer the state towards prosperity by adopting latest technologies, he pointed out.

“We may have succeeded in forming a separate state after a sustained struggle, but we have not been able to achieve the real objectives. We will have to give a better Jharkhand to our future generation and need to work out effective strategies to ensure that our children don’t have to run here and there in search of bread and butter,” he added.

JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya maintained that the JMM portal provided all necessary information about the party organisation, thus enabling the electorate to make the right choices in the upcoming Assembly elections.

“All available information will be updated regularly. Besides, suggestions are welcome from every section of the society to make the portal more user-friendly,” he signed off.