New Congress entrant Hardik Patel Monday prefixed his twitter handle with the word “Berojgar” (jobless), apparently to mock the BJP’s “Main Bhi Chowkidar” campaign on the social media. The twitter handle of the Patidar quota spearhead, who joined the Congress in the presence of party president Rahul Gandhi recently, now reads as: “Berojgar Hardik Patel”.
After the huge political controversy over the Balakot air strikes that was seen to have boosted the BJP prospects, the Congress has been slowly trying to get the focus of the political narrative back to the issues that concern the common man – farm crisis, jobs crunch and notes ban. The ‘Berojgar’ began trending Sunday when several youths added the new nomenclature to their twitter handles. Gujarat Congress IT cell vice president Hiren Banker said several Congress workers are adding “Berojgar” to their
However, he also clarified that the Congress is yet to officially adopt the ‘Berojgar’ campaign.
“Several workers of Congress have also joined the ‘campaign’ and the engagement is increasing. However, we have not yet officially adopted this,” Banker said, adding that the Congress would adopt the “Berojgar” campaign after consulting party officials.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also spoke of the lack of jobs during her interactions with the people on Day One of her boat journey to Varanasi. She also took on the Chowkidaar campaign, saying “only the rich who have chowkidars, not the farmers”.Ms Gandhi’s party has accused PM Modi of looking after the interests of industrialists like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Anil Ambani.
“Chowkidar chor hai (the watchman is a thief),” has been Rahul Gandhi’s slogan to hammer in the party’s claim that PM Modi had been involved in corruption and crony capitalism in the Rafale fighter jet deal.
The “Main Bhi Chowkdar” campaign was the BJP’s comeback to Congress jibes that used the a phrase with which PM Modi described his battle against corruption ahead of the 2014 elections.
Since yesterday, when PM Modi added the “Chowkidar” prefix to his Twitter account and his party followed his example, leaders of the Congress and the opposition have been taunting the BJP.
“You can keep trying Mr Modi, but the truth cannot be extinguished. Every Indian is saying it. #ChowkidarChorHai P.S: Do force Sushma ji to add “Chowkidar” to her handle. It’s looking very bad,” Rahul Gandhi had tweeted.
