Regional-language social media platforms face the same misinformation challenge as Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp. Sharechat has around 50 million registered users, 25 million monthly active users and 10 million daily active users. Helo has at least five

Chat is for for fashion.”

However, Sharechat’s own data shows the platform’s grip on the political mood on the ground.

According to a company blog post, Sharechat created a “popularity index” for the BJP and the Congress in the run-up to the 2017 Gujarat assembly elections based on thousands of users’ posts and hundreds of thousands of ‘likes’.

Politicians are increasingly turning to the platform to promote their messages. HT found dozens of verified accounts of politicians on Sharechat, including Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Chattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, Delhi BJP leader Manoj Tiwari, and official accounts of the Congress and some of its state units.

The company declined to share the number of accounts that are verified.

“The two- and three-tier users of Sharechat make up a large chunk of our voters. They relate more to content shared on that platform. Sharechat is to regional-language users what Instagram is to English-speaking India,” said Divya Spandana, who handles social media for the Congress.

The party has an official account on Sharechat and at least four other accounts targeting a different region: Kerala, Punjab, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. BJP’S social media head did not respond to HT’S request for comment. The Election Commission hasn’t responded to email and phone enquiries.

As assembly elections kick off in India, the political opinion put up on regional-language social media platforms continue to be polarised.

A recent news post related to Madhya Pradesh elections on Helo has besieged special director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Rakesh Asthana, saying that “if an investigation is ordered against me, I will expose Shivraj (Singh Chouhan)’s involvement in the Vyapam scam.” Asthana never said this.

And just hours before voting began in Chhattisgarh, an account on Sharechat that goes by “Bharat Positive” shared an election post asking the state’s voters to choose between the Congress and the BJP knowing the consequences.

Their children will hold guns if they vote Congress, it told them, and pens if they vote for the BJP. jokes, for shayari,