Twitter recorded over 2.3 million tweets related to Karnataka election between 25 April and 11 May. Siddaramaiah emerges as the most discussed candidate.
New Delhi: On the battleground, Siddaramaiah might not have swung Karnataka elections for the Congress but in the virtual world, he has emerged as the most discussed candidate, according to data shared by social media platform Twitter for the last 30 days of the campaign.
Twitter recorded over 2.3 million tweets related to Karnataka elections and 1.9 million tweets mentioning ‘Karnataka’ between 25 April and 11 May.
“Between the parties, it was a close fight in Karnataka as BJP garnered 51 per cent of the share of voice on Twitter while Indian National Congress took 42 per cent, and Janata Dal (Secular) had 7 per cent of mentions,” said Twitter in data points released Tuesday.
Buzzwords around the polls
It seems that BJP’s high voltage ‘Hindutva’ agenda failed to find an audience on Twitter during Karnataka elections. Last year, during the Gujarat elections, ‘Hindutva’ had emerged as the second hottest topic of discussion.
This time around, however, the most discussed topics on the platform during the countdown to polls were ‘corruption’ and ‘Reddy brothers’ – issues promoted by Congress against BJP.
Narendra Modi’s party had been defensive on the question of corruption as the party’s chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa dealt several corruption charges. Moreover, the BJP offered seven seats to the Reddy brothers and their friends and relatives – G. Karunakara Reddy and G. Somashekara Reddy – who were accused of being involved in illegal mining.
The other topics Twitterati discussed the most included ‘power’, ‘voter IDs’, and ‘development’.
Rahul Gandhi’s tweet victory
The top retweet of the past week was Rahul Gandhi’s jibe on Modi for giving tickets to Reddy brothers. A video uploaded by Gandhi in the same tweet questioned the BJP’s choice of B.S. Yeddyurappa as a chief ministerial candidate. The video alleged that Yeddyurappa has 23 cases of forgery, corruption and cheating against him. The tweet was retweeted over 10,000 times and favourited by almost 23,000 accounts. It generated 3,400 replies.
Dear Modi ji,
You talk a lot. Problem is, your actions don’t match your words. Here’s a primer on your candidate selection in Karnataka.
It plays like an episode of “Karnataka’s Most Wanted”. #AnswerMaadiModi pic.twitter.com/G97AjBQUgO
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 5, 2018