Rahul Gandhi's new followers joined Twitter in October, haven't tweeted yet

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi's twitter handle 'OfficeofRG' has been grabbing headlines due to a sudden rise in retweets and massive gain in followers.

Gandhi has managed to gain more than one million followers between July and September this year, something that has raised many eyebrows. According to Congress sources, Rahul's followers stood at around 24.93 lakh in July 2017 and rose to 34 lakh by September 17.

Meanwhile, a brief analysis into Gandhi's Twitter account shows that more than 50 followers of the Gandhi scion’s handle joined the micro-blogging website in October 2017 itself and have not posted a tweet of their own even once.

Though the finding doesn't back the allegations of 'bots purchasing', it gives a strong indication that these profiles were possibly created with an intention to add numbers to Gandhi's followers. 

Here's some of such Twitter users that appeared on the first page of RG's followers list:

@TimothyPranitha
@RahulSa52560751
@aman_deep232
@JAIHIND29616723
@UdayKum24350398
@BallabhGopi
@Sagaryellewar1
@ShilpaDubey14
@bhaskarblhnp
@krthikraja2
@PARMARPRAKASHB2
@Amritpa35930690
@UgaleNilkanth
@RAMSUSHEELPATE4
@yrujhybakyazrd1
@Blue94254974
@JAKIRHU88600730
@Bharatc31192969 
@Abhishe81906860
@Sarfara95344514 
@Chandu00581619
@AJAJAY708
@MANISHK70963532 
@GauravK21834789 
@Babamynuddin0 
@GayatriSepta 
@9122surajverma 
@mohdarb4669100 
@Ranjith82741143 
@Akshious0422 
@ravi65349766 
@ashishsahara1 
@GargoteSudam 
@MunduiyaAmanraj
@marzanpatel 
@Push1115 
@AheadRafi 
@Vishnu77885906 
@Shahruk33440681
@SatnamS44514418 
@Rah_ll73
@91_904
@AryanCh39764867 
@JitenDr62874588 
@ZettaAhlgren 
 @SuufiyaanJeyla1 
@NimishaBansal9 
@Kulvind90152342 
@SanjibBhoi4 
@Mahendr81821663 
@bachsai67 
@Raj76717534 
@KafilAlam4 
@bosco87396081 
@AnandKu11831472 

According to a recent finding into his account, people in recent past have retweeted Gandhi more than Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the first and second most-followed Indian politicians on the micro-blogging site.

However, on Saturday, a report claimed that alleged 'bots' with a Russian, Kazakh or Indonesian characteristic were behind Gandhi's recent popularity on social media as they were routinely retweeting the Congress vice president's tweets.

Gandhi's 'resurgence' on social media also goes hand in hand with another news report claiming that the Congress had roped in Big Data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica for a more targeted digital campaign to woo voters.

On October 15, 'OfficeofRG' retweeted United States President Donald Trump's tweet with a caption 'Modi ji quick, looks like President Trump needs another hug'. The tweet was by October 21 retweeted at least 30,000 times and was liked by as many as 22,000 users. 

An ANI report claimed on Saturday that alleged 'bots' were routinely retweeting RG's tweets. The report added that the content of these twitter timelines comprised merely of retweets and a lack of tweets which could be categorised as an original thought. 

When zeenews.com tried to take a look at some of those accounts, we realised that they were suspended by Sunday morning. 

http://twitter.com/charlot34583589
http://twitter.com/pkbjdasjyesc557
http://twitter.com/lawannapuchajd9
http://twitter.com/yrlkamcsmc1507
http://twitter.com/madelenegonza14
http://twitter.com/cherilynzagors6
http://twitter.com/alinevyverberg2
http://twitter.com/berniecebenson6
http://twitter.com/lynettacrabtre7
http://twitter.com/bernierogers121