A Twitter war has erupted on the social media platform between the BJP leaders and Congress supporters after the former alleged that Russian social media users were responsible the sudden spike in the Twitter posts of Rahul Gandhi.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s posts on Twitter have been a subject of intense conversation lately because of their wit and creativity. There were also reports that Rahul, who has a lot fewer followers than Modi, has been getting more retweets than the prime minister.
This understandably caused plenty of concern among the saffron party camp, which is already jittery of being placed on the back-foot ahead of the assembly elections in Gujarat. The party’s nervousness also emanates from the fact that the Congress party has outsmarted it on social media, where it enjoyed unparalleled dominance until recently.
Union Minister Smriti Irani accused Rahul of using Twitter bot to secure more retweets. She posted an ANI story, which claimed that many users with Russian, Kazakh and Indonesian names were frequently sharing his posts on the microblogging site.
Perhaps @OfficeOfRG planning to sweep polls in Russia, Indonesia & Kazakhstan ?? #RahulWaveInKazakh https://t.co/xVanl2mKGh https://t.co/Yhl1oAGqOg
— Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) October 21, 2017
Congress supporters were quick to troll Irani, who unsuccessfully contested against Rahul in Amethi in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Activist Tehseen Poonawalla pointed out how among those who retweeted Modi’s tweets also included an escort agency.
Namaskar @BJP4India SM cell & respected @smritiirani ji ma’am. Why are ” escort agencies” re-tweeting my hon @narendramodi ji ? 15th oct pic.twitter.com/15U7rcCaZE
— Tehseen Poonawalla (@tehseenp) October 21, 2017
His another tweet said
Well our hon @narendramodi ji is taking alleged services from service providers, On our tax money while the GDP has collapsed#Nov8BlackDay pic.twitter.com/epSO38uXyL
— Tehseen Poonawalla (@tehseenp) October 21, 2017
Tehseen produced more evidences of when Modi’s tweets too were shared by users with similar foreign sounding names.
Resepcted @smritiirani ma’am why are we not told categorically our tax money has not gone into this . Your comments ma’am#Nov8BlackDay pic.twitter.com/RrSCpYXy2W
— Tehseen Poonawalla (@tehseenp) October 21, 2017
The BJP is facing growing anger in Gujarat, where the saffron party has governed for 22 years in a row. The party is desperately trying to woo the voters fearing unfavourable results in this year’s elections. Congress has suddenly intensified its game by going jugular against the ruling party.
Its latest campaign ‘development gone crazy’ appears to have put the BJP on the backfoot with its national president Amit Shah warning supporters not to pay heed to social media campaign by its rivals.