Taking a jibe at the fan-following of former Union Minister Ajay Maken in abroad, the Opposition on Wednesday said that it indicated that the Congress leader is not popular among Indian voters. They said that despite being a Cabinet Minister for a long period, a negligible number of Indian followers meant people 'disapproved' of him.
"It is ridiculous that a senior leader who is also the head of the Congress media cell has such a dismal Indian fan following. Further, a majority of his followers abroad appear to be fake. People of India have rejected the Congress and its leaders," said Delhi BJP leader and former MlA Vijay jolly. He lamented that a leader who has held several portfolios in the Union Cabinet does not have a sizeable number of Indian followers. "Maken should introspect," Jolly added.
Another party leader said this was an indication that the party's popularity is declining due to its failure on all fronts. He said the Congress MP does not even have 3,000 Indian followers on social networking site Facebook out of the total 99,007 fans. Sources in the Congress party said the socially active leaders should have avoided such a situation as this would dent the image of the party ahead of the crucial Assembly elections in Delhi, followed by General elections next year.
"The facts and figures pertaining to his fan-following is embarrassing - both for the party and the leadership, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi," said a Congress leader. The Pioneer had, on Tuesday, reported that Maken had surprisingly more fans from abroad than in India on the social media.While his Facebook profile has a dismal 2.9 per cent Indian fans, his Twitter account, too, has merely a handful of Indian followers out of a total 2,87624 followers.