NEW DELHI: A day after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi sought to humour social media with his pet Pidi and his snapping a treat act, the BJP asserted that party’s North-eastern face and Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sharma proved wider reach than the Gandhi scion.
Sharma had posted a sharp comment to Gandhi’s tweet wherein he sought to project his pet Pidi as smarter than him and source of content for his social media outreach. Sharma sought to confirm Pidi’s stature, saying he had been a witness or being kept waiting despite urgent matters concerning Assam.
“The Congress had been claiming that Rahul Gandhi’s newfound popularity on social media was a result of transformation he had brought about in his politics. However, it has been laid bare that his social media popularity was orchestrated by hiring Bots,” Amit Malviya, the social media head of the BJP, told The New Indian Express.
The BJP leader, while referring to Sharma’s joining of issue with Gandhi on Twitter, said that the Assam leader got much more traction on the virtual world than the Congress vice president. “In a recent comment and video put out by Gandhi wherein he claimed that his dog, who was smarter than him, tweets on his behalf. Sharma replied while pointing out the flippant attitude of Gandhi and episode concerning his exit from the Congress. The fact that Gandhi led someone as resourceful as Sharma go out of his party after which the BJP under his watch won a number of elections in the North-eastern states point both to the lack of political acumen as well as purchased popularity of the Gandhi scion,” Malviya stated.
Incidentally, Sharma was engaged in a war of words with the Congress MP Sushmita Dev as part of his viral response to the tweet of Gandhi. Dev in a tweet commented that with the change of time people also change and their attitude too, while referring to Sharma. The Assam minister joined in with Dev, saying that he was happy having been changed since “his new party made him aware that the nation comes first before person”.
Sharma is seen as BJP’s key ace up the saffron sleeve, as the party pocketed Manipur in its kitty after winning Assam earlier. The BJP is also in power in Arunachal Pradesh, while the party shares power in Nagaland. The BJP is bracing up for state Assembly election in Tripura early next year, which is seen as a prestige issue since the saffron outfit would be up against the Manik Sircar led CPI (M) government.