Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s comeback blog posted on Thursday and opening of a Facebook account on September 2 seem to have tickled BJP leaders in the state.

“Chief minister Nitish Kumar has become a blogiya. It did not take him even 15 days to have a change of heart,” said former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi. He recalled how Nitish had made fun of BJP leaders, including himself (Modi), using the Twitter and commented that the BJP leaders were just making noises “cheche-cheche”.

BJP leaders said on Friday Nitish Kumar has a knack of following the path taken by his political foe, the party’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi. “The truth is that Nitish Kumar is jealous of the massive popularity enjoyed by Narendra Modi in social media. He uses Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites to connect with the younger generation of the country. It was an instrument used by him to win over the younger generation. Today, he is the most popular leader of the country,” said the former deputy chief minister.

BJP leaders said Nitish would feel the popularity of Narendra Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. “The social media is the strongest tool to connect with the younger generation of India and no leader can ignore it. Nitish should have had second thoughts before making fun of the social media,” said another BJP leader.

In Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi has been the most tech-savvy in the use of IT and social media. He was among the first to use Facebook and Twitter to express his views on social matters.

In complete contrast, RJD chief Lalu Prasad was uncomfortable when the age of computers came. His made his famous statement — Yeh IT-YT kya hota hai? However, later he found an IT professional in his eldest son-in-law and stopped making fun of IT. As railway minister, he opened a blog, which he stopped using within a year. None of Bihar’s politicians can match Narendra Modi’s use of the social media. However, Nitish’s Facebook account shows continuous entries. On Friday, he mentioned he was going to deliver a lecture of ideas on India held by the National Minorities Commission and felt excited.

JD(U) leaders scorned at the remarks of BJP leaders on Nitish’s sudden interest on social media. “We have a socialist background and can never follow Modi. Nitish Kumar did not make fun of the social media. He took digs at BJP leaders who only use the social media to make comments and never reach out to the masses,” said food and consumer protection minister Shyam Rajak.