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Rahul Gandhi's Twitter outreach has played a key role in changing perceptions about him, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has said, urging the party chief to maintain his "unique communication" with the people and to ignore "trolls and troglodytes".
Tharoor, who was recently edged out by Gandhi as the most-followed Congress leader on Twitter, also said social media could prove to be a "game influencer" in 2019.
In an interview to PTI, he said the Congress's counter-narrative to the BJP on social media was "witty, eye-catching and trendsetting".
Asked if the microblogging site played a key role in helping people get to know the Congress president and changing his image from a reluctant politician to a dedicated leader, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said, "Yes, very much so."
But while Tharoor lauded Gandhi for being "sharp and incisive on social media", he said the party chief was also "attentive and involved" with the concerns of the country and that had won him plaudits.
"I think it is his work on the ground that has really made him stand out of late and has carved this dynamic image of Rahul as a constructive and attentive statesman. Personally, as someone who urged him to join Twitter, I'm delighted by his popularity on this medium as well," he said.
Asked what he would advise Gandhi now after having urged him to join Twitter, Tharoor said he would ask him to ignore trolls – those who routinely fling abuse and vitriol at those with different views – and troglodytes, defined as cave-dwellers or someone being deliberately ignorant or old-fashioned.
Asked if the battle for 2019 polls would be fought online between parties, he said, "I think it (social media) can be a game influencer, but I wouldn't go beyond that at this stage and concede that it will be the 'real' battleground for 2019...You need various ways of reaching out to the electorate, and social media happens to offer an additional way, not a substitute for any of the traditional means of campaigning." But the election post 2019 could be a different ball game, he said.
Lauding the Congress's recent social media outreach, Tharoor said the party's social media team under the “energetic” leadership of Divya Spandana had done some "terrific work" in the past couple of years to carve out a "unique niche" for the party.
India's young were great users of social media and so it would be "very important" to reach out to that section of the people who use the medium, she told PTI.
On being the first leader in the Congress to embrace Twitter and his journey on the platform, he said it made him more accessible to the people and vice versa.
"So it is really a mutually beneficial relationship that I share with people via social media. If in the process it contributes to my political 'branding', so much the better," he said.
(This article was published in an arrangement with PTI.)
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