The BJP sources, as reported by PTI, revealed on Saturday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's social media influence surpasses that of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. This observation comes as both parties intensify their online campaigning for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
According to the data shared, Modi's account on X (formerly known as Twitter) accumulated around 79.9 lakh engagements in the last month, whereas Gandhi's handle received approximately 23.43 lakh engagements. Over the span of the past three months, Modi's account garnered about 2.77 crore engagements, while Gandhi's handle received roughly 58.23 lakh engagements.
Moving to Facebook, Modi's account experienced about 57.89 lakh engagements within the last month, contrasting with Gandhi's account that registered approximately 28.38 lakh engagements, as reported by BJP sources. This year, the prime minister's Facebook account accumulated around 3.25 crore engagements, whereas Gandhi's figure stood at 1.88 crore engagements during the same period.
Shifting focus to YouTube, it was stated that Modi's channel amassed about 25.46 crore views over the past month, while the Congress leader's channel garnered approximately 4.82 crore views on the same platform. Year-to-date statistics reveal that Modi's YouTube channel achieved about 75.79 crore views, while Gandhi's channel received around 25.38 crore views.
Congress boasts of higher views to Rahul speech
The rebuttal from the BJP comes at a time when the grand old party has been boasting about the reach of Rahul Gandhi's parliament speech on social media platforms being greater than that of PM Modi.
Srivatsa, the Congress leader who reportedly handles Gandhi's social media accounts, wrote on X, "‘No Confidence Motion’ in Parliament - Speech Stats Facebook Rahul Gandhi : 7.4 million views Narendra Modi : 5.6 million views YouTube Rahul Gandhi : 1.9 million views Narendra Modi : 1.6 million views Twitter Rahul Gandhi : 28,300RTs Narendra Modi : 16,100 RTs Read the comments by common Indians on any social media platform, especially YouTube, the wave and support for Rahul Gandhi is evident. Most of viral unofficial reels and shorts are also positive content on RG. Modi is being mainly propped up by Godi Media because of money but common people, especially youth, are supporting Rahul Gandhi in higher numbers. Sign of things to come. Bharat Judega. INDIA Jeetega."
Congress's head of social media and digital platforms, Supriya Shrinate, also shared similar stats.
"One thing is clear, people are tired of PM Modi's rhetoric and are now listening to the leader who speaks of love. Viewership data of their speeches in Parliament 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐝 𝐓𝐕 Rahul Gandhi: 3.5 lakh Narendra Modi: 2.3 lakh 𝐈𝐍𝐂 𝐘𝐓 Rahul Gandhi: 26 lakh 𝐁𝐉𝐏 𝐘𝐓 Narendra Modi: 6.5 lakh 𝐈𝐍𝐂 𝐅𝐁 Rahul Gandhi: 73 lakh 𝐁𝐉𝐏 𝐅𝐁 Narendra Modi: 11,000 𝐈𝐍𝐂 𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 Rahul Gandhi: 23,000 𝐁𝐉𝐏 𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 Narendra Modi: 22,000
(With inputs from PTI)
