Karnataka polls take Twitter by storm

With less than a week left for the high-pitched campaigning to end for the May 12 Assembly elections in Karnataka, micro-blogging site Twitter is abuzz with traffic related to the polls.

Tweets related to elections have more than doubled in the last few days, with over 760,000 recorded since April 25. The peak period was May 3 with over 7,000 tweets in one hour at 12.30 pm, according to data revealed by Twitter.

The moment coincided with both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi addressing rallies in various parts of the state.

“Tweets related to the Karnataka elections have more than doubled over the previous month, indicative of developing civic-mindedness on the platform,” the micro-blogging platform said.

According to Twitter data, farmers found the maximum mention among tweets regarding Karnataka elections, followed by power, panchayat, corruption and petrol.

Modi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who have engaged in a war of words on Twitter, are the most searched politicians, followed by Rahul Gandhi, BJP president Amit Shah and former finance minister P Chidambaram.

Twitter has launched several initiatives for Indians to provide real-time updates on the campaign trail, connect voters to politicians on the most important election issues, and to have their voices heard during the #KarnatakaElections2018.

Twitter said that it is hosting an #AskTheLeader series of interviews with candidates, allowing citizens to get to know their leaders better and get answers to their queries with regard to the priorities for the state. “People can tweet to @TwitterIndia and @TheNewsMinute using the following hashtags #KarnatakaElections2018 and #AskTheLeader to join the conversation and be heard,” it said.

Mahima Kaul (@misskaul), Head - Public, Policy and Government, Twitter India said, “Twitter is the best place to know what’s happening in your state, city or community, and the world.”