35 mn talked about Indian assembly polls on Facebook; BJP most discussed party

Kolkata: A whopping 35 million people across the globe took part in conversations on India's state assembly elections on Facebook, from January 1 to April 1, according to the social networking site.

"35 million people have engaged in conversations related to the India state assembly elections globally on Facebook (from 1st Jan to 1st April). 19.2 million in India (have engaged in the conversations)," said a post on Facebook's official page.

Assembly elections are taking place in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and the union territory of Puducherry.

For Assam, where polling ended on April 11, according to Facebook data on audience engagement, the top politicians talked about were the BJP's chief ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal (40 percent), Prime Minister Narendra Modi (29 percent) and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi (26 percent) of the Congress.

At 55 percent, the BJP was the top party that was discussed, followed by the Congress at 38 percent while the Aam Aadmi Party and All India United Democratic Front ranked at the third spot with 3 percent.

The Communist Party of India was last with just one percent.

In West Bengal, parties like the Trinamool Congress and CPI-Marxist are actively using features such as live chats and videos to connect to the masses.