Mystery of BJP leader's tweet for pilgrim Rahul

New Delhi: BJP parliamentarian Tarun Vijay, whose Twitter account had on Tuesday night displayed tweets backing Rahul Gandhi on his Kailash-Mansarovar yatra and slamming the party for attacking the Congress president, has claimed that his "password" was "misused".

However, several people, including some BJP leaders, contested Vijay's claim and said the tweets could be a show of his discontent. The Congress exhorted the BJP leader to speak his mind without fearing his political "masters".

"I was born in RSS/BJP. Can you imagine me doing this?" Vijay told The Telegraph and refused to talk further, saying his response was available on his Twitter page and that he was not speaking to anyone about the issue.

Vijay parried the question whether his Twitter account had been hacked or the person handling his social media page had played mischief, saying: "That will be clear only after the investigation." The leader disconnected the phone, without clarifying if he had filed a police complaint.

After 10pm on Tuesday night, tweets started appearing on Vijay's timeline slamming those commenting on Rahul's pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar.

"Those commenting, mocking at, making cheap comments on Rahul's Yatra are wrong. Not what a Hindu should do. It is all between him and Shiva. None can be bigger than Shiva. I hv been blessed to visit Kailas three times and president of Kailas Mansarovar Yatri Sangh," one of the tweets that were deleted later said.

In another tweet, a person is advised against being arrogant because he had Prime Minister Narendra Modi's backing. "Hello. You are NOT there bec you are very popular. You are there bec there is this person behind you. @narendramodi. Shed your arrogance. Oh My god, you think yc are very popular," the tweet said.

A little past midnight, at 12.11am, another tweet on Vijay's page said: "I am on morning walk and I am Ok. Sacked person who was handling my tweets."

This left tweeters wondering and posting memes. "Just like 'this morning I got up at night'," one Twitter user said.

At 7.57am on Wednesday, a clarification was issued on Vijay's account. "Thank you friends for showing faith in us and not believing the wrong tweets. It happened when we were shifting home. Password misused and I am filing a police complaint. Changed password. Thanks to the huge number of friends who stood by me. Thank you," the tweet said.

A Twitter user going by the name @IronyOfIndia questioned the BJP leader's claim that his account had been "misused". This user pointed to a pattern in which Vijay had written "because" as "bec" earlier too, as it appeared in the tweets disowned by the leader.

"Are you telling us, the one who 'misused ur acc' has similar pattern in writing 'bec'? Why are you scared to confront your Party? We are with you. Don't be scared," @IronyOfIndia tweeted.

BJP insiders said the tweets appeared to have been posted by Vijay himself. Party leaders felt he must have realised later that he had gone too far and so had disowned the tweets.

"As far as I know, Tarun Vijay handles his Twitter handle himself. He has not hired any person to run his Twitter account," a BJP leader said.

The leaders claimed that Vijay might be upset because he had been "sidelined" in the Modi-Amit Shah regime.

On Wednesday morning, Vijay began retweeting Modi's tweets and also posting in favour of the BJP.

The Congress backed Vijay and urged him not to be scared of his "masters".

"Keep up the spirit. Support truth fearlessly. Don't delete whatever you have written on Rahul Gandhi's Kailash yatra out of fear of your masters. Satyam shivam sundaram. Truth is Shiva," Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala tweeted in Hindi.