Narendra Modi's Appointment as Prime Ministerial Candidate Drove Buzz by 71% on Social Media

As the countdown to the general elections begins, social media conversations around possible candidates for the top job and other political leaders have gathered momentum. In this heated atmosphere, blogworks has released a report on most mentioned political leaders for the month of September 2013.

In this 6^th edition of the Most Mentioned Political Leaders – September 2013, official appointment as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate drove Narendra Modi’s buzz by 71%. Also, Rahul Gandhi uses his 'right to reject' and comes up to the 2nd spot in September 2013 by the Blogworks Most Mentioned Political Leaders Index ranking.

This report has been generated after doing a through analysis of mood and conversations about the top political leaders on social media in India.

Some of the key highlights of the report:

• Narendra Modi retains #1 spot as buzz for him increased by 71% in September 2013 as compared to August 2013. People shared their perception of Narendra Modi as a leader with great vision who does not treat Muslims as a vote bank. People also praised him for keeping Gujarat riot-free since 2002. These led to positive mentions for him under 'Caste & religion'.
• Mentions for LK Advani increased by 355% in September 2013.
• After Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted in the Fodder Scam case, mentions for him increased by 285% resulting in his moving to the 9th position in September 2013, up from the 24th position in August.
• Mentions for Sonia Gandhi, Omar Abdullah, Digvijay Singh, Mamata Banerjee and Arun Jaitley declined in September 2013.
• Mentions for Rahul Gandhi increased by 146% in September, mainly on account of his rejection of the ordinance protecting convicted legislators from disqualification.
• Mentions for Arvind Kejriwal increased by 46% in September. Arvind Kejriwal’s statement blaming the government for not implementing the Lokpal bill was shared multiple times online and drove positive mentions under ‘Corruption’.