Political campaigning hots up through social media

Researchers analyse how political parties used hashtags ahead of U.P. elections

In the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) elections, Twitter handles that support the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have tweeted more about U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while those of its allies have mentioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi more often. The Samajwadi Party (SP) was “organised” in using hashtags to maximise its reach on Twitter, and Congress has criticised both Mr Modi and Mr Adityanath, as opposed to the SP which went more after the latter.

A team comprising Prof Ponnurangam Kumaraguru from International Institute of Information Technology - Hyderabad, Joyojeet Pal from the University of Michigan, researchers Asmit Singh Jivitesh Jain and Lalitha Kameswari analysed hashtags and arrived at these conclusions. 

According to Prof Kumaraguru, the team collected and analysed hashtags which as many as 11,000 people used. These include parliamentarians, legislators, workers, and supporters of BJP, SP, INC, RLD, BSP, AIMIM, Nishad Party, Aam Admi Party, and Apna Dal. Data pertaining to hashtags used was collected from September 2021 to January 2022.