What's buzz on Indian Twitter? Lok Sabha elections and national security: Report

Conversations around elections kept Twitter buzzing over the last one month with over 45 million tweets being shared, the microblogging platform said Thursday. Prime Minister Modi emerged as the "most mentioned figure" during this first phase of the #LokSabhaElections2019 conversations on Twitter, it said in a statement. Interestingly, national security ranked ahead of topics like religion, jobs, agriculture, and taxes and trade in the election conversations. "Polling started on Thursday morning for 91 seats in 18 states and 2 union territories and the conversation on the platform reflected this. Twitter recorded 45.6 million tweets related to the Lok Sabha elections from March 11, 2019, the day elections were announced, until April 11, 2019," the statement said.

Of the 45.6 million tweets recorded during this period, 1.2 million were tweeted on Thursday during phase one of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it added. Twitter said politicians and political parties have been using its platform to communicate with citizens all over the country throughout the campaigning period.

"Campaigns, manifestos and announcements around policies and key social issues have accounted for some of the top-Tweeted moments as voters got ready to go to the polls," it added.

Apart from Modi, other personalities like Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were top mentioned leaders.

"Indians in India and across the world have been engaging in dynamic conversations around the elections with relevant hashtags, replies and retweets, to discuss the topics that matter most to them. In the past month, leading up to elections, national security has emerged as the most talked about election-related topic on Twitter," the statement said.