Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday took on his detractors who have been wondering as to whether his tweets are his own, through a video of his pet dog.
People have been asking who tweets for this guy (Rahul Gandhi). I'm coming clean, it is me Pidi... I'm way cooler than him, read the post which shows a video of Pidi (the dog) doing some antics and gobbling a biscuit after balancing it on his muzzle.
"Look what I can do with a tweet... oops... treat," says the tweet.
However, a Twitter war erupted soon after with BJP poking fun at Gandhi while a few others defending the Congress leader.
First, Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, a Congress rebel, took a jibe.
"Sir @OfficeOfRG,who knows him (Pidi) better than me. Still remember you busy feeding biscuits to him while we wanted to discuss urgent Assam issues," Sarma posted in response.
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BJP's IT cell head Amit Malviya was more scathing in his response. Sharing a meme akin to a movie poster with Rahul riding pillion on a bicycle being run by Pidi, Malviya wrote: "Pidi lao, Congress bachao..."
The movie-poster-like meme had "PIDIMAN: The story of a dog who is smarter than his master - written and directed by Congress" written over it in bold.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah came to Gandhi's rescue.
"Anyone can make fun of others so it's refreshing to have national leaders who aren't afraid to be funny at their own expense," Abdullah wrote while re-tweeting Gandhi's tweet and video.
Meanwhile, Congress Lok Sabha MP Sushmita Dev took on Sarma by digging out an old tweet by him where he pledged allegiance to Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Dev shared Sarma's tweet dated June 19, 2013 that read: "I am and will be loyal to My leader Soniaji and Rahul ji and congress party. whatever may be the provocation."
"Waqt badal jata hai, insaan badal jate hain/ waqt, waqt pe rishto ke andaaz badal jate hain (Time changes, so do persons/ Relations' equations change along with times)...why blame Pidi," Dev wrote while retweeting Sarma's old tweet.
"We also know you (Sarma) better now," Dev wrote in another tweet in response to Sarma's tweet targetting Rahul Gandhi.
Of late, Rahul Gandhi's tweets have grabbed much attention for their humour and satire -- which sceptics say is very unlike the Gandhi scion. Also, there has been a sudden rise in retweets and the number of his followers.
His Twitter handle got more than one million new followers between July and September this year, according to reports.
--IANS
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