Kolkata: Eyeing the growing influence of social media, especially among the youth, Facebook on Thursday said it is launching a 'TalksLive' season that allows users to ask questions to political leaders, including Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal, on their priorities and agendas.
"The country goes to vote to elect the 16th Lok Sabha in a few months. National elections are always the biggest moment for social mobilisation, civic engagement in a democracy," Facebook Public Policy Director (India & South Asia) Ankhi Das said in a statement.
In 2009, the popular vote of the BJP was 78 million and that of the Congress party was 119 million. There were hardly any people using Facebook at that time in India, but that has now changed, she added.
"Today, we have over 93 million people in India engaging actively every month on Facebook. We have always been focused on making sure that we give people the power to share and to make the world more open and connected," Das said.
This and the opportunity to engage actively and regularly with constituents have led campaign teams and leaders to use the medium, making Facebook a core part of the political infrastructure in the country, she added.
"Social engagement is at the core of our platform. In politics and elections, it is also key to influencing voting behaviours and organising opinion," she said. The company is launching 'FacebookTalksLive'session with key national and regional leaders ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
It is a multi-platform, multi-screen session in partnership with newslaundry.com and NDTV, she added.
Participants on the session include BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Aam Aadmi Party founder and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and RJP supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav.
"On FacebookTalksLive season, you can ask Modi, Kejriwal, Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav how they will govern India and what are their priorities and agendas," Das said.
Users can post their questions at the Facebook India page and Editor–in-Chief of newslaundry.com Madhu Trehan will ask them on Facebooktalkslive to the leaders. The question and answer session which will be telecast live on news channel NDTV and will also live streamed on https://talks.facebooklive.com/.
