Taking his #MainBhiChowkidar campaign to the next level, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday added prefix Chowkidar to his Twitter name, which now reads as Chowkidar Narendra Modi on the microblogging site.
Quickly following him were his senior party colleagues such as BJP President Amit Shah, Union Ministers Smriti Irani, Maneka Gandhi and Piyush Goyal, who too added Chowkidar in their Twitter names.
Goyal tweeted using his new name, “As Chowkidars of our nation, we are committed to creating a clean economy by using cashless financial transactions. The menace of corruption and black money has adversely affected us for decades. Time to eliminate these for a better future.”
As Chowkidars of our nation, we are committed to creating a clean economy by using cashless financial transactions.
The menace of corruption and black money has adversely affected us for decades. Time to eliminate these for a better future. #MainBhiChowkidar #ChowkidarPhirSe pic.twitter.com/y44vwyM4xs
— Chowkidar Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) March 17, 2019
Shah wrote, “The leader, who made cleanliness part of his value system, is our true watchman.”
जिसने बनाया स्वच्छता को संस्कार…वो है चौकीदार। #MainBhiChowkidar
कहो दिल से #ChowkidarPhirSe pic.twitter.com/jLqn6atvXR
— Chowkidar Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 17, 2019
However, not every senior BJP leader appeared to be in sync with Modi on adding prefix Chowkidar to their Twitter name. Amongst those who have refused to follow Modi on the new campaign so far are Union Minister Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gakdari, Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj.
This came a day after Modi’s #MainBhiChowkidar trended as top hashtag globally. The new campaign, according to experts appears to have been launched to dilute the impact of the attack by the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi on Modi using the #ChowkidarChorHai jibe.
The latest attempt to embrace the term Chowkidar with even more vigour is similar to how BJP’s social media army ran #ChaiPeCharcha campaign during 2014 Lok Sabha polls after senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar mocked Modi’s much-claimed background as a tea seller.
Update: Hours after Janta Ka Reporter reported, Jaitley, Gadkari and Singh too had added Chowkidar in their Twitter names. Swaraj, who’s currently on a foreign visit, has still not followed them.