Congress president Rahul Gandhi beat senior leader of his own party Shashi Tharoor in terms of followers on Twitter. Gandhi is now the most-followed Congress leader on Twitter leaving behind former international diplomat and his party MP Tharoor.
Gandhi has a following of 6.77 million while Tharoor has 6.7 million. Many assumes that as Gandhi has been changing and full of dynamic activities, it will only help grow further in favor of the Congress chief. And there will be no seesaw back towards the Kerala MP.
For neutral observers and Congress functionaries, Gandh’s smaller social media footprint in camparison to a colleague was bound to be annoying given that he is the party head.
For politicians and public figures, Twitter and social media is also a platform to engage with their followers and share their activities, opinions and thoughts with them.
However, as a Congress functionary said that a party chief is expected to have the highest following among colleagues since social media has become one of the parameters of assessment of popularity.
‘It matters in public perception’, he said.
Commenting on this, Tharoor expressed his happiness. He said “With pleasure. It is only fitting. And as one who has been urging him for years to be on Twitter and to be himself there, I feel a certain sense of vindication".
Commenting on this, Congress’s social media head Divya Spandana said “"It is because of Rahul Gandhi's tweets and the stances he is taking on issues of public importance. He is one person who is speaking truth to power. There is disillusionment on the streets and he is the only person resonating with the public. People are warming up to him."
Gandhi came on Twitter much later. Initially, he was as ‘OfficeofRG’ but it was later turned personal, ‘RahulGandhi’.