Delhi exit polls: When our experts answered the janata's questions

It was an outright crazy thought and that is probably what made it so enticing. Just as the TV sets started beaming the Exit Poll results on Feb 7, we got into a huddle to kick off a simultaneous Facebook Q&A with our ace anchor Rahul Kanwal and renowned psephologist Ashok K Lahiri on two of India Today Group's parent accounts. In short, it was a foursome Facebook chat session involving two guests who were answering questions simultaneously, in English on India Today and in Hindi on AajTak. Now you know why the idea was crazy!

It started with what can best be described as complication gloved in a challenge. The first bump of course, was to get a pure bred Babu moshai (Read Ashok Lahiri) to answer in Hindi on AajTak. Our translation capabilities were bursting at the seams as we tried to convert phrases like "Never is never an option in Politics" into colloquial Hindi.  What aggravated the challenge was the fact that the stiff upper lip English audience had better things to do on a Saturday evening so the questions there were manageable. This was in contrast to the AajTak account where the floodgates had been opened with friends wanting to engage big time. We had to push the envelope on our Hindi competencies and typing speed.

That said, it was one of the most satisfying experience on audience engagement. The good, solid and insightful questions made up for the comments keyed in by some of our Facebook friends with their puckish sense of humour. Sample some of the questions that brought out the seriousness of the various issues that the public has been deliberating around these elections. (Our Psephologist answered from the @indiatoday and @aajtak handles)

This turned out to be a new way to get the pulse of our viewers and followers and it was worth all the complications. I am sure Rahul Kanwal and Ashok Lahiri will agree!