In Modi's footsteps

If there's one thing that even his rivals have to admire about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, it's the following he's developed online - partly, at least, thanks to his and his public relations (PR) firm's skilful use of social networking. One of his rivals within the Bharatiya Janata Party, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, was long a scoffer, even telling Tehelka magazine in an interview that "I do not put up a show of the work I've done... I don't need to be shown affection on Twitter or Facebook because I'm not here to market myself". A pretty hard hit, you'd think, but mark the sequel - barely a few weeks after that interview, in the second week of March, Chouhan began tweeting. His feed is suspiciously similar to Modi's in fact, leading some to speculate he has hired the same PR firm. Indeed, on Friday, he tweeted about the success of Madhya Pradesh's "Power to all at all times" scheme - which sounds very much like a Modi topic, too. Perhaps Chouhan needs to be asked the Twitter question again.