More followers doesn't mean more Twitter likes

Hyderabad: According to an independent analysis, Twitter posts of political leaders who have a massive following are not liked or re-tweeted in proportion to the number of their followers.

For example, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has 44.4 million followers, far ahead of Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s 7.84 million. However, the replies, likes and the retweets of Mr Gandhi’s posts are multifold when compared to those of the Prime Minister, though a lot of them are from the troll army. 

The analysis can be done by observing the twitter activity of the last 100 tweets. 

Manas Gupta, who studied the activity of both the accounts, explained, “For September, it was found that @narendramodi’s tweets are less liked whereas the less-followed @RahulGandhi’s tweets are consistently liked more. For example, 52 tweets of both leaders posted in September were analysed. The maximum likes on a single day for Narendra Modi’s post were 30,000 whereas for Mr Gandhi, it shot up beyond 70,000.”

In September, the likes for Rahul Gandhi ranged between 15,000 and 75,000 per day and for the Prime Minister, 5,000-30,000. Apart from the likes and RTs, replies to posts by the Congress president are high, but they are from the troll army. The analysis also raised a doubt about the activeness of millions of followers.

“The Congress president has 7.87m followers on twitter and Mr Modi has 44.4m, yet likes and RTs of Rahul Gandhi are twice Modi’s. This is puzzling,” said Chaitanya Gokhale, who has analysed the tweets. 

However, some disapproved of this analysis, citing examples where Rahul Gandhi’s post didn’t receive a much-needed response. Satyendra K. Nishad who goes by the handle @indsatyu, said, “Many tweets on Congress plenary session of RaGa held in March 2018 were even not liked or retweeted by Congressmen, where RaGa delivered a speech. This shows great publicity of Rahul Gandhi.”

Another twitter user  Rajesh Kumar added, “There may be fake followers that are liking and retweeting the post. How is it possible to have one-fourth the followers of Modi and yet the response is multi-times higher. The Congress must have appointed a battalion to like and retweet Mr Gandhi’s posts.”

Reacting to the analysis, an user Ayusha R. said, “I follow @RahulGandhi. It does not mean that I support him. I just follow him to check hi funny tweets and even funnier replies in the comments section.”

Singer and BJP leader Babul Supriyo says, “Rahul Gandhi’s tweets are more about anger management than anything else. The kind of stuff a man in ‘Bali’ can say is not only appalling but sheer trash, and only like minded people will like it. “