Election chatter on Twitter sees massive jump at 396 mn tweets

Twitter was abuzz during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with as many as 396 million tweets being sent out on the platform since January this year, recording a phenomenal jump over the previous general elections.

In the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, the micro-blogging platform had generated more than 56 million election-related tweets between January 1 and May 12, 2014, although the user base at that time was far lower.

Twitter, however, does not provide country-wise break up of its user numbers.

On Thursday alone, 3.2 million tweets were sent out as counting of the votes progressed through the day. Interestingly, a third of these were recorded between 3 pm and 4 pm, around the same time that Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his victory post.

"The volume of conversation around #LokSabhaElections2019 including Tweets from candidates, political parties, citizens and the news media ensured that from 1 January 2019 till 23 May 2019, Twitter saw more than 396 million Tweets on the platform...," a statement from Twitter said.

Modi's tweet -- "Together we grow. Together we prosper. Together we will build a strong and inclusive India. India wins yet again! #VijayiBharat" -- got over a lakh retweets and 3.18 lakh likes.

Modi emerged as the most mentioned political personality throughout the course of elections, while BJP was the most mentioned political party.

"@NarendraModi emerged as the most mentioned figure during the entire course of #LokSabhaElections2019, and @BJP4India handle along with the handles of their National Democratic Alliance members took 53 per cent of the mentions on Twitter," the statement said.

Congress' Twitter handle, along with handles of other members of the United Progressive Alliance, received 37 per cent of the mentions.

During the course of the elections, national security emerged as the most talked about poll-related topic on Twitter, followed by religion, jobs, agriculture, and demonetisation.

Other top mentioned leaders on Twitter between January 1 to May 19 included Congress President Rahul Gandhi, BJP chief Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, among others.