Nikhil Alva: The Gatekeeper of Rahul Gandhi's Twitter handle

Nikhil Alva, well-known media entrepreneur and Congress leader Margaret Alva's son, is the keeper of Congress president's Twitter handle

Rahul Gandhi formally took charge as the Congress president on December 16 and completed six months as his party's chief on Friday. Of the several changes in the party since the turnaround in Gandhi's social media outreach has surprised his political rivals and supporters alike.

Since July 2017, Gandhi has added over four million followers to his Twitter account – number of his Twitter followers is currently 7.1 million, up from 2.5 million around the same time last year. In March, Gandhi was enthused enough to take a more direct ownership of his Twitter handle, changing the handle from clumsy sounding @OfficeOfRG to more straightforward @RahulGandhi.

Gandhi's Twitter activity has also been more notable for its timeliness and sharper content, which has helped him and his party dominate political discourse on several occasions, particularly after the Narendra Modi government hurriedly implemented the goods and services tax (GST) and Gandhi ridiculed it on Twitter as 'Gabbar Singh Tax'.

Congress party insiders say the metamorphosis isn't because of any one individual, but a joint effort of several teams – Randeep Singh Surjewala-led communication department, Rajeev Gowda-headed research department, Divya Spandana-led social media team, among others.

However, former media entrepreneur Nikhil J Alva has been a key individual behind the turnaround. In Congress circles, 48-year-old Alva is known as the 'gatekeeper' of Gandhi’s Twitter handle. Alva's Twitter bio states that he is a "media entrepreneur with the soul of a political activist, who wants to build a just and equitable world".

Alva is the middle of the three sons of senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan governor Margaret Alva. All three brothers, Alva himself, his elder brother Niret and younger brother Nivedith, are well known media entrepreneurs. Nivedith has also dabbled in politics.

Alva refused to be interviewed for this article, asking this reporter to direct queries to either Surjewala or Spandana. When asked about his role as the handler of Gandhi's Twitter handle, Alva indicated that he would rather not be written about and declined to comment.

But Congress insiders said all of Gandhi's tweets need to pass Alva's muster. It is Alva who actually presses the ‘tweet’ button, sources said. Gandhi and Alva are just a year apart and were contemporaries at New Delhi's St Stephen’s College.

Alva is the grandson of freedom fighters Joachim and Violet Alva, who in 1952 became the first married couple to be Members of Parliament. While Joachim was a member of the Lok Sabha, Violet was a Rajya Sabha member. Alva's father Niranjan passed away in April, and Gandhi was in Bengaluru and spent time with the bereaved family.

A musician, Alva founded Miditech, a music studio, in 1992. When his elder brother Niret joined in 1994, Miditech became a production house. The Alva brothers and their production house has produced several well-known shows over the last two decades, including Living On The Edge, some seasons of Indian Idol, Fame Gurukul, Roadies, etc.

Unlike his youngest brother Nivedith, Alva has never publicly expressed any interest in electoral politics. Nivedith has been associated with the Youth Congress unit of Karnataka, and was a ticket aspirant for 2008 Karnataka assembly and 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In 2008, Alva told the Mint newspaper about his political ambitions: “I am too independent in my thinking, and there is very little intra-party democracy in the Indian political scenario. As an individual, I will never be comfortable in that set-up. I would like to get into some sort of public service later, but I don’t see politics as the route for me.”

Given his unwillingness to talk about his current role, Alva wishes to continue to stay away from electoral politics, and satisfied with  lending a helping hand to a friend.