Twitter sees over 3 mn mentions of Karnataka elections

Karnataka assembly polls, which have thrown up a hung verdict, created a lot of buzz on Twitter with over three million mentions being generated in three weeks.

Between April 25 and May 15, Twitter saw "more than 3 million mentions in relation to the #KarnatakaElections2018".

"From breaking news to behind the scenes action, political parties, candidates and citizens sparring over hot election topics, Twitter emerged as the best place to catch all the action on during the recently concluded #KarnatakaElections2018," Twitter said in a statement.

The statement noted that while the election was being held in Karnataka, netizens from across the country and even overseas participated in discussions on Twitter.

"Throughout the state elections campaign, politicians and parties took to Twitter to regularly communicate with people all over India," Twitter added.

Karnataka went to polls on May 12 for 222 seats (polling for the remaining two will be held later) and the results being declared on May 15. BJP won 104 seats, while Congress got 78 and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) bagged 38. For a party to form government in the state, it needs a majority of 113 seats in the 224-member assembly.

The fight on ground was mirrored on Twitter as well. According to the microblogging platform, BJP (@BJP4Karnataka) garnered 51 per cent of the share of voice on Twitter, while Congress (@INCKarnataka) took 42 per cent and Janata Dal (Secular) had 7 per cent of mentions.

A tweet by Rahul Gandhi addressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw the highest number of re-tweets (10,151 times), while it received 22,930 likes, the statement said.

Modi (@narendramodi) emerged as the most mentioned personality during the course of Karnataka elections on Twitter, while incumbent Chief Minister Siddaramaiah (@Siddaramaiah) emerged as the most mentioned candidate on the platform.

Most trending hashtags included #KarnatakaElections2018, #KarnatakaVerdict, #KarnatakaElections, #SarkaraBadalisiBJPGellisi and #KarnatakaElectionResults.

"Twitter is where political conversations happen and where you can see all sides of a conversation when it comes to elections. Candidates and political parties have been responding to each other directly on Twitter, while voters have had a front-row view to digital campaigning in this state election," Twitter India Head of Public Policy and Government Mahima Kaul said.

Over the past few weeks, data shows more than three million Tweets related to the Karnataka Elections, making it one of the most talked-about state elections on Twitter, she added.