Shimla, Jul 31 (IANS): Their ideologies may differ but politicians of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh have something in common - Facebook.

Congress leader and Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Virbhadra Singh and senior BJP legislator Suresh Bhardwaj are Facebook buddies.

"Of course, Singh is also in my friends' list. Though we are in different camps, we have a long association," Bhardwaj told IANS Sunday.

"My father (the late Shardha Nand) was a court employee with the erstwhile Bushehr estate of Maharaja Padam Singh (Virbhadra Singh's father)," Bhardwaj said.

Congress legislators G.S. Bali and Mukesh Agnihotri are also Bhardwaj's Facebook friends.

Former tourism minister Bali and Agnihotri have 1,290 and 1,260 friends respectively.

Himachal legislators are high-tech and regularly use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to reach out to ordinary people. They generally speak on various social issues and regularly update their Facebook status.

Congress legislator and an electronics engineer by profession Rajesh Dharmani, has 2,049 Facebook friends. He regularly airs his views on blogs as well criticising various issues relating to the BJP's governance .

"Using cyber space to reach out to the common man is the best way," Dharmani said.

Congress legislators Sudhir Sharma and Rakesh Kalia have 1,033 and 267 Facebook friends respectively.