Priyanka Gandhi arrives in Lucknow, makes Twitter debut

Twitter handle goes active before her maiden visit to UP as AICC general secretary

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra The 'rath' parked outside Lucknow airport for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra | Salil Bera

Marking her political debut ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi arrived at the Lucknow airport on Monday afternoon to a rousing reception by party leaders and workers.

Accompanied by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and in-charge of the western region, Jyotiraditya Scindia, a beaming Priyanka Gandhi waved at partymen jostling for a glimpse of her.

As her 'rath' rolled on, it was a selfie galore with enthusiastic partymen taking vantage positions to click prized photographs for posterity.

When the trio embarked on a roughly 25-km-long roadshow through major thoroughfares of the state capital, rose petals were sprinkled and marigold garlands showered at their cavalcade.

The day of her maiden visit to Uttar Pradesh as an AICC general secretary also saw Priyanka debuting on Twitter, garnering a massive response with tens of thousands following her on the social media platform within hours. 

"Smt Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is now on Twitter. You may follow her at @priyankagandhi," a tweet from the Congress's official Twitter handle said.

She didn't post a tweet, but followed seven people, including her brother and party chief Rahul Gandhi as well as party leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Ashok Gehlot Randeep Singh Surjewala, Ahmed Patel and the Congress's official account.

Over 45,000 people followed her within hours of her joining the microblogging site.

Priyanka Gandhi (47) and Scindia (48) took charge as AICC general secretary UP east and UP west, respectively, last week.

The Congress seems to have learnt its lessons from 2014, and has been scaling up its operations on social media platforms to challenge the BJP on a front which has been the saffron party's forte.

Rahul Gandhi has also been using Twitter for his attacks on the government and analysts credit his aggressive social media campaign for a turnaround of his image among the people.