Lalu Prasad joins 1million followers club on Twitter
Lalu Prasad, has used the microblogging site to great effect, especially in the wake of burgeoning attacks by his bete noire, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi over alleged accumulation of ‘unexplained’ wealth by his family.
The man, who once lampooned information technology in mid-1990s by saying ‘Yeh IT-YT kya hai’ and discouraged youths from taking to social media, has joined the club of million plus followers on Twitter.
With 1.06 million followers as on date, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad is now numero uno among Bihar politicians on the microblogging site. Others, including chief minister Nitish Kumar and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, are way behind.
Prasad, who joined Twitter in 2014, has used the microblogging site to great effect, especially in the wake of burgeoning attacks by his bete noire Modi over alleged accumulation of ‘unexplained’ wealth by his family.
Kumar, who joined the microblogging site in 2010 has 6.43 lakh followers with 2006 tweets, the most recent of which are related to his drive for total prohibition. Modi too has a strong list of followers, who number around 5.37 lakh, with 10.3K tweets on his Twitter handle.
READ: Counter attack his defence on family wealth, Lalu tweets on SuMo kin
Prasad’s son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has 1.02 lakh followers on Twitter. Bihar Congress chief and education minister Ashok Choudhary’s followers have crossed the 65,000-mark with over 5000 tweets on his page.
“It is just a matter of few weeks when Prasad’s Twitter account will cross 1.50 million followers. That is no mean achievement and reflects how he is the one of the most followed politician in the country,” said Sanjay Yadav, an MBA, who handles the microblogging accounts of Prasad and Tejashwi.
“Apart from using Twitter to counter attacks on him, Prasad’s tweets on other social, political and environmental issues are quickly lapped up and retweeted by his followers. That’s the reason Prasad has gained such a fan following in the digital world,” Sanjay Yadav said.
Commenting on Prasad’s feat on social media space, an RJD functionary Sanoj Yadav said though an account was opened in the name of party chief in 2012, Prasad chose an auspicious occasion of Makar Sankranti on January 15, 2014 to formally join the cyberworld traffic. His first tweet read: “Only change is constant. With change, we change, finally on twitter.”