Electoral battles in the country could be fought on social networking platforms, come the next general elections.
According to a new study by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), there are 160 constituencies out of the total of 543 constituencies in the country, where voters are likely to be influenced by what’s trending on social media.
Various categories
The study has classified constituencies into various categories depending on the number of Facebook users in that region. High-impact constituencies are those where the number of Facebook users are more than the margin of victory of the winner in the last Lok Sabha election, or where Facebook users account for over 10 per cent of the voting population.
While there are 160 high-impact constituencies, 67 constituencies have been identified as medium-impact areas, while the rest have been identified as low-impact or no-impact constituencies.
The medium-impact constituencies are those where it has been assumed that a Facebook user can influence one other voter who may not be on Facebook. These are the constituencies where the total number of Facebook users is in excess of 5 per cent of the voting population.
Maharashtra has the most number of high impact constituencies (21), followed by Gujarat (17), the report said. Goa (2), Chandigarh (1), Odisha (1) and Uttarakhand (1) have the lowest impact constituencies, it added.
Globally, social media has had a huge impact during elections in other countries.
According to a report in huffingtonpost.com, the demographics during the US Presidential elections in November 2012 showed that Barack Obama carried the voters in the 18-34 age range, the reason may lay within the strategy employed utilising social networks.
US President Barack Obama, as he did in 2008, brought the message to where the electorate was having the conversations — Twitter and RSS feeds.