Rahul Gandhi expanding social media footprint, now gets 6,000 followers per day: Report

Rahul Gandhi

Moneycontrol News 

Congress President Rahul Gandhi has been expanding his social media footprint and his image is witnessing a makeover, according to a report in the Economic Times.

Citing data put out by Twitter during the period from January 31-February 3, the report states that the Gandhi scion's tweets during the interim budget received more retweets than Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tweet on the same subject. This, despite PM Modi having more followers than Gandhi.

Gandhi's tweet, which alleged that five years of Modi government had "destroyed the lives of our farmers" and giving them Rs 17 a day is "an insult to everything they stand and work for" was retweeted over 12,000 times. In comparison, a tweet by Modi on the same day garnered over 7,000 retweets.

The Congress president was referring to the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, which would give direct income support of Rs 6,000 per annum to farmers who own less than two hectares of land. The scheme was proposed by interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal during the budget on February 1.

A Congress leader quoted by the news agency blamed mainstream media for the traction that Gandhi's tweets have been gaining. The leader reasoned that since the media is "pro-Modi" and against the Congress president, his social media presence gets more attention.

"As the content of the tweets often make it to the instant messaging platform WhatsApp which has a wider reach in rural India than Twitter, greater retweets of Rahul's messages is good news for the Grand Old Party," the leader said.

However, social media expert Anoop Mishra cautioned that a greater number of retweets does not necessarily mean the person's influence has also expanded.

"What they indicate is people's interest in the subject that has been tweeted," Mishra said. He, however, said the Congress president's reach has increased dramatically over the past five years.

"As per my study done on the social reach of political leaders including Rahul Gandhi on September 5, 2018, the current statistics shows higher growth in his tweets, number of followers and retweets," Mishra said, adding that Gandhi's follower base is expanding at the rate of more than 6,000 followers per day. The Congress chief's tweets also earn better engagement on Twitter and Instagram, according to the report.