Who is More Popular on Twitter, Rahul Gandhi or Narendra Modi?
The answer may surprise you.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) victory in 2014 Lok Sabha polls has been attributed to, among other things, it’s social media prowess. From connecting to voters to alleged troll-farms, the BJP’s superior social media game paved the way for a new avenue of campaigning. But that may now be a thing of the past.
On December 5, journalist Aunindyo Chakravarty tweeted a table that compared the average of the last 50 tweets of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to Chakravarty’s table, while Modi’s tweet received 2,791 retweets and 12,094 likes, Rahul Gandhi’s tweets received 8,242 retweets and 31,208 likes on an average.
Either @RahulGandhi has become more popular, or else @BJP4India has lost its edge over @INCIndia on twitter, because if you take the average of the last 50 tweets of the two top leaders, Rahul is way ahead of @narendramodi when it comes to likes & Retweets. pic.twitter.com/03z454xt8h
— Aunindyo Chakravarty (@AunindyoC) January 5, 2019
Of course, Modi tweets much more than Rahul, and that could be one reason for Rahul’s lead. However, Rahul’s RTs+Likes are more than 2.5 times that of PM Modi. This would have been unthinkable two years ago.
— Aunindyo Chakravarty (@AunindyoC) January 5, 2019
That the combination of average likes and retweets received by Rahul Gandhi is more than 2.5 times that of Narendra Modi is telling of how much the Congress party has upped their social media strategy. But is it also an indicator of the BJP’s dwindling popularity?
The Congress’ poll performance in the recent assembly polls is proof of the latter. In addition to that, while Rahul Gandhi and Congress’ popularity has been on the rise, recent analysis has found that Modi’s popularity is on a decline — areas where the PM hosted rallies, have mostly voted the BJP out in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
Of course, regarding the number of followers, Modi still stands much ahead of Rahul Gandhi. With 44.9 million followers, the prime minister is five times ahead of Gandhi’s 8.2 million followers. However, in light of the retweet and like averages’ trend, is that still a good thing?