Narendra Modi dominated Twitter conversations during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, with his name finding a mention in a fifth of the total 56 million election-related tweets this year.

Modi, the prime ministerial nominee of the BJP, the party which is expected to win the elections on May 16, was mentioned in 11.1 million tweets between January and May 12, the last day of polling. His party found mention in another 6 million, or 11 per cent of the conversations.

Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP followed close behind with 8.2 million or 15 per cent, while Kejriwal himself was mentioned in 5 million tweets.

Companies that analyse social media data also found the BJP was likely to sweep the polls in the metros, with a bulk of people tweeting favourably for Modi after polling. Social media aggregation site Simplify360 carried out a social media exit poll for three major cities, based on social media penetration and tweets emanating from these cities.

The agency predicted the BJP to get a maximum 6 out of 7 seats in Delhi, 5 out of 7 seats in Mumbai and 3 out of 4 seats in Bangalore. The company's CEO Bhupendra Khanal said that the analysis conducted by the company was done based on positive mentions of the parties on Twitter.

Political commentator Shiv Visvanathan said this expression on social media is a reaction to the fact that these parties are the two basic choices before India. "The chatter is more irreverent and relaxed rathe .. 

Political commentator Shiv Visvanathan said this expression on social media is a reaction to the fact that these parties are the two basic choices before India. "The chatter is more irreverent and relaxed rather than serious political discourse and the decline of the Congress has made this possible. Congress is like a political umbrella that has closed. And thousands of flowers has bloomed because of that," he said.

Ankita Gaba, cofounder of social media knowledge storehouse socialsamos com says in terms of pure numbers, BJP is far ahead of most parties on all social media fronts. "It should be a case study for marketing students around the world on how Modi prepared his social media campaign," she says.

Of the top influencers, Modi was the centre of the chatter with close to 20 per cent of all related conversations around him (11.1 million tweets). However, Rahul Gandhi's name just accounted for 2 per cent of the entire election related tweet chatter with 1.3 million tweeets. (The Economic Times)