By Anshul Tewari:
The elections are around the corner, and the internet seems to be playing a big role. While political leaders are spending crores of rupees on building up their social media image and following, little is known about how this will affect the election outcome in reality. Whatever your analysis of this may be, social media is definitely playing a big role in opinion building, this election; and recent Google Search Trends give a deeper look into what people are trying to find out about Modi, Kejriwal and Gandhi, the top 3 contenders this season. Here’s what we can find out:
1) Kejriwal spiked it, while Modi has been consistent. Rahul Gandhi way behind:
The above data showcases the search interest for Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi. As is easily observed, people searched more for Arvind Kejriwal on the 28th of December, which was also the day when he was sworn in as Delhi’s Chief Minister. The second spike, 14th February, is the date when Arvind Kejriwal quit as the Chief Minister of Delhi.
Trends of people looking for Narendra Modi have stayed consistent. They do go up and down on certain dates, specifically whenever there has been a rally, but there have never been any considerable spikes.
The spike in the day for Rahul Gandhi came around the 28th of January, which is around the time he was interviewed by TIMES NOW journalist Arnab Goswami.
2) Uttarakhand strengthening for Kejriwal, Jharkhand for Narendra Modi and Assam for Rahul Gandhi
While Uttarakhand and Haryana, both currently Congress led states, have shown a deeper interest in Arvind Kejriwal, Jharkhand and Goa, states led by JMM and BJP respectively seem to be more interested in Narendra Modi. Assam and Haryana, both Congress led states, showed interest in Rahul Gandhi.
The last two Chief Ministers of Uttarakhand (including Harish Rawat, the present Chief Minister) were Congress ministers. The current Chief Minister of Haryana has also been a Congress leader, Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Jharkhand has been led by the Jharkhand Muti Morcha in the current term. Uttarakhand, in the past, has had both BJP and Congress leaders, whereas Haryana and Jharkhand have had a taste of Congress and BJP, respectively, in the past. In all these 3 regions, the interest for Aam Aadmi Party seems to be growing, which could be because of a lack of public-political connect in the states with the conventional parties, slow growth and lack of political will to hear out the people of the states. Aam Aadmi Party gained traction by entering Delhi and sweeping the state with free water, electricity audits and a fight for Jan Lokpal Bill among other things.
Narendra Modi has been one of the top contenders among the three and his efforts to sweep the social media, with his sponsored Facebook ads and initiatives such as Chai pe Charcha seem to be helping him gain more popularity, but mostly in states that are already governed by a BJP Chief Minister.
Narendra Modi has also trended on Twitter way more than any other politician in the recent times but Kejriwal is not far behind. As the elections near, Congress has definitely taken a silent backseat from the public eye, at least on social media. There is very little media coverage and very few discussions happening as more discussions remains around Arvind Kejriwal and Narendra Modi.
What do you make out of these trends?