Kolkata, Sep 27 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday launched their WhatsApp channel to ensure direct communication with the people through digital route. The follower base of the subscriber channel crossed the 3,000-mark within one hour from the time of the launch. Already the WhatsApp channel of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has crossed five million-mark and the PM has also thanked his followers there. Now it is to be seen what kind of popularity and follower- base the same initiative by Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee attract in the next few days. Party insiders said that the initiative has been mooted following the constant negative propaganda against the state government and the ruling party by a large section of the media. "This section of the media never highlights the different development projects and their successful implementation at the grassroots level benefitting several people. But now there is a need to counter that and through this channel the common people will be provided with direct information about such developmental projects," a member of the state cabinet said. It is learnt that the messages of the chief minister will be directly sent to mobile phones of the followers through this WhatsApp channel. /IANS