World hooks up with HT for poll action

At 8.30 am sharp on Saturday, as the first trends began trickling in, the editors of Hindustan Times had a six-and-a-half-hour-long live blog session — Editors on Elections — on hindustantimes.com and users from across the world participated in a lively first-of-a-kind discussion with them.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said “the people of India spoke with clarity”… well they spoke in large volumes as well.

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At a six-and-a-half-hour-long live blog session — Editors on Elections — on hindustantimes.com users from across the world participated in a lively first-of-a-kind discussion with editors of Hindustan Times.

At 8.30 am sharp on Saturday, as the first trends began trickling in, the editors had set up shop. But the flow of questions and comments just blew them away.

Within the few minutes, thousands of visitors were jostling online to interact with the editors and discuss which way the trends were moving.

The questions were incisive. “Why did the Congress get this mandate?” “Is Rahul responsible for bringing Congress back in UP?” “What kind of politics does Jayalalithaa stand for?” Is this the end for Advani?”

The great part of it was the snap poll — it could be called on any issue to elicit the views of the participants.

Very early, the polls established that Manmohan Singh had the mandate and the Congress could afford to pick and choose it allies.

The live blog, amid large protests from viewers, winded to a halt at around 1.30 p.m. when the trends for all the 543 seats were available.

“Editors on Elections was an initiative that fits well with our endeavour to make our website more interactive and provide our readers with an opportunity to discuss, debate and comment on current affairs and breaking news,” said Sanjoy Narayan, Editor-in-Chief, Hindustan Times.

“We will be doing more of this in the future, particularly during big news breaks.”