Twitter serves public conversation with Twitter Dialogues this election season

With elections in the world’s largest democracy currently underway, Twitter is committed to serving the public conversation in India through civic debate and enabling citizens to connect to their leaders irrespective of geography.

In this spirit, the platform in partnership with Vikram Chandra (@vikramchandra) and Editorji (@editorji) has launched #TwitterDialogues: a series of Twitter-first conversations with political leaders in India featuring questions from the Twitter audience.

Hosted by renowned journalist, news anchor and founder of Editorji (@editorji), Vikram Chandra (@vikramchandra), #TwitterDialogues provides a truly interactive platform this election season.  The series has featured Sachin Pilot (@SachinPilot), Jyotiraditya Scindia (@JM_Scindia), and Uma Bharti (@umasribharti), and will continue to bring power-packed interviews like Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal), Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari), Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley), P Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN), Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor), Sheila Dikshit (@SheilaDikshit), Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah), Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman), and KTR (@KTRTRS) in the coming weeks.

#TwitterDialogues offers Twitter users a tangible way to connect with their elected leaders. The show encourages Twitter users to engage in a direct, open and public conversation with politicians, while it offers political leaders a platform to reach out to a large, engaged digital audience from across the country. The show, native to Twitter and first on the platform, prioritizes the 'voice of the people' above political rhetoric or ideology.

Also Read: Twitter records 45.6 million Tweets around Lok Sabha Elections

The bilingual conversations in Hindi and English have garnered over 340,000 Video Views and 1.49 million impressions since the series first went live on April 21st, 2019.

Speaker confirmations for #TwitterDialogues are also coming in directly on the platform.

Commenting on the initiative, Vikram Chandra (@vikramchandra), Founder, Editorji and Host, #TwitterDialogues said: “Indian elections are the one time when the public gets to ask questions of those who seek to lead them. What better way to do this, than to have a live interview where anyone can ask questions live on Twitter? That was the idea behind the partnership between Twitter, a company designed for interaction, and Editorji, a company that aims to reshape how video news is consumed. We are so glad that most of the country’s leading politicians have accepted the opportunity to take questions in real time. You can watch all the episodes on Twitter via my Twitter handle.”

Amrita Tripathi (@amritat ‏), Head News Partnerships Twitter India said: “Twitter India is delighted to partner with Vikram Chandra and the Editorji team to enable direct dialogue between voters and political leaders during the #LokSabhaElections2019. Having audience questions answered by leaders in real-time leverages the best of Twitter, as a conversational, meaningful and interactive platform. The programming is Twitter-first, and the bilingual interviews add another layer of nuance in this fast-paced, newsy season. We have received a positive response on the initiative so far and are looking forward to more power-packed interviews in the series.”

It all comes together on counting day, May 23, 2019, where Chandra and the Editorji team will take the Twitter experience to a new level, with all eyes on a truly digital-first election counting day show.

Join the conversation with India’s political leaders by following the hashtag #TwitterDialogues live on Twitter, and watch the live interviews via @VikramChandra or through the Editorji app.