#GoBackModi trends all day on Twitter, leaves Karnataka government red-faced
BENGALURU: Karnataka pulled a Tamil Nadu and Kerala on Thursday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Bengaluru. For the first time, a hashtag opposing Modi’s visit— #GoBackModi — trended all day on Twitter.
The trend began as a mark of opposition to the PM’s visit to Tamil Nadu on multiple occasions. While Tamil Nadu and Kerala are both non-BJP-ruled states, in Karnataka, which is currently ruled by the BS Yediyurappa-led BJP government, a viral hashtag against the PM has come as an embarrassment to the party.
A group of citizen activists along with Congress and JDS workers, promoted the hashtag all day, even with BJP’s attempt to make #KarnatakaWelcomesModi go viral.
By the time the PM wrapped up events at Tumakuru and returned to Bengaluru on Thursday evening, some 26,279 #GoBackModi tweets had been posted. The number reached 50,000 tweets by 9 pm. Meanwhile, the BJP’s hashtag #PMWithFarmers was only used 6,022 times.
Despite disbanding their respective social media war rooms post elections, Congress and JDS IT cell volunteers worked along with citizens’ group.
“We wanted to make the hashtag trend when the PM was in Bengaluru for Chandrayaan-2, but we did not want to politicise it. But the PM himself politicised his visit by invoking CAA inside Siddaganga Mutt. We will continue the online campaign against him,” said Srivatsa YB, Indian Youth Congress.