Shock, awe and ‘I told you so’, were some of the reactions on the social media as the results for the 17th Lok Sabha began trickling in and the full nature of the mandate became apparent by afternoon. On a normal working day, knots of people assembled at public places, on the metro, on buses to check out the swing of results and follow what the leaders were saying on the social media. However, social media in Telangana remained eerily quiet as the results remained tightly contested in multiple centres in the State. At 1 p.m., TRS leader K. T. Rama Rao tweeted: “People of India have given a decisive mandate. Many congratulations to Hon’ble PM Sri @narendramodi Ji and BJP president Sri @AmitShah Ji on leading NDA to a comprehensive victory.” Setting the tone for the reaction of TRS to the results.
Glitchy website
As one of the closest counting sessions in Telangana began in Bhongir, Malkajgiri, Nalgonda, Adilabad, Chevella and Zaheerabad, the Election Commission websites results.eci.gov.in and crashed and remained inaccessible between 11.30 a.m and 1.30 p.m. It remained glitchy till the evening.
But in the middle of the serious discourse and dissertations of the results, Arnab Goswami's gaffe lightened the mood in the social media. In the middle of the broadcast, he interrupted an anchor to seriously announce: “Sunny Leone is leading by 7,500 votes. Sunny Leone is leading by 7,500 votes.” Within minutes the clip became viral. He obviously meant actor Sunny Deol who polled over 50.4% of the votes. Adding mirth to the tamasha, the real Sunny Leone jumped into the debate by tweeting: “Leading by How many votes ???? ;)”.
Director Ram Gopal Varma had snarky fun at the discomfort of actor Pawan Kalyan whose new party performed miserably in Andhra Pradesh elections: “Prajarajyam is Bahubali compared to Jana Sena... Congrats Chiranjeevi Garu!”
‘Chowkidar’ goes
One of the expected developments of the landslide victory of the BJP was the change in names in Twitter handles of the leaders. At 6.07 p.m. Prime Minister Narendra Modi dropped the word ‘Chowkidar’ and advised others to follow suit.
“Now, the time has come to take the Chowkidar Spirit to the next level. Keep this spirit alive at every moment and continue working for India’s progress. The word ‘Chowkidar’ goes from my Twitter name, but it remains an integral part of me. Urging you all to do the same too!” tweeted Mr. Modi. Within no time, Amit Shah and other BJP leaders followed suit. However, some BJP leaders are yet to change their twitter handles.
