After Wordle, Rahul Gandhi posts Twitter poll to troll BJP government ahead of Assembly polls

Although the clarion call of the election has sounded in all five states, with rallies and roadshows banned, political parties are struggling to campaign. Congress, like any other party, does its best to use social media to achieve its own goals and minimize those of others. Former Congress party chairman Rahul Gandhi has used several tenchinques – the recent one being a Twitter poll.

The poll question posed by the 51-year-old was “What has been the biggest shortcoming of the BJP government?” In the poll published on the microblogging platform Twitter, the “hostile environment” option won 35% of the vote, followed by “unemployment” (28%), “inflation” (19.8%) and “tax recovery” ( 17.2%).

Reacting to the poll results, Gandhi wrote, “I also believe that hate politics is very harmful to the country. And this hatred is also responsible for unemployment. Domestic and foreign industries cannot function without social peace,” adding, “Will overcome this hatred that grows daily around you with brotherhood – are you with me?”

Earlier, Gandhi had jumped on the “Wordle” trend. Speaking to his official Twitter account, Gandhi had shared an excerpt from Wordle, tagged “Guess who”. On the board were words such as Jumla, Taxes, Humdo (allegedly alluding to Ambani-Adani), Jhola (bag), Snoop and Photo. The pun, as many have pointed out, was a veiled dig at the BJP-led central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Italy comeback Rahul Gandhi holds marathon meetings

Rahul Gandhi, who returned from Italy on January 9, held meetings with senior party leaders to discuss upcoming elections in Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Punjab.

In Uttar Pradesh, Congress on Thursday released the party’s first list of 125 candidates for the UP elections, which includes 50 women. Addressing a virtual press conference, Congress Secretary General Priyanka Gandhi Vadra claimed that these candidates would help usher in a new style of politics in the country. In the state, the party faces strong competition from the BJP, SP and BSP.

The Goa party is facing a mass exodus at the hands of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) with many veteran leaders like Sushmita Dev, Abhijit Mukherjee, Kirti Azad and Ashok Tanwar jumping ships.

The Punjab Congress as is known is going through a tough time after the exit of Captain Amarinder Singh who started his own party called Punjab Lok Congress. Moreover, with Congress infighting lingering and no chief ministerial face yet to be chosen, parties like the AAP and BJP stand to benefit.

In Manipur and Uttarakhand, the Congress plans to defeat the outgoing BJP governments and make a comeback.

India’s Election Commission announced the dates for Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur on Saturday. While Uttarakhand, Punjab and Goa will have a single-stage poll, the Assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh and Manipur will be held in seven and two stages respectively. The counting of votes for all ballots will take place on March 10, 2022.