5m views & counting, Sidhu’s first day, first show creates flutter on FB

› Chowkidar ki khul gayi pol; beech bazaar mein mach gaya shor; chor, chor, chor, chowkidar chor

› Baat karoron ki, dukaan pakoron ki, aur sangat bhagoron ki

› Rafale ka plane urrana tha, par file hi urra di...phurrr!

NAVJOT SINGH SIDHU, Punjab local bodies minister

CHANDIGARH: On his first day, first show at Chhattisgarh, Congress’ star campaigner and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu hit out at BJP’s ‘mein bhi chowkidar’ slogan. The video of the press conference bagged nearly 5 million views in just two days on Sidhu’s official Facebook page.

Sidhu kicked off his whirlwind 40-day campaign from the state addressing three rallies and a press conference (after the rally was cancelled) on Thursday. The otherwise sleepy Facebook page of the minister is buzzing, and so is the social media war-room of the Congress. “The response is phenomenal. Facebook data shows it is all organic and not bought likes. Sidhu is the hottest selling politician on social media,” says Vaibhav Walia, who heads the social media team of the Indian Youth Congress.

Some of the lines he spoke were: Chowkidar ka khul gaya pol; beech bazaar mein mach gaya shor; chor, chor, chor, chowkidar chor; Baat karoron ki, dukaan pakoron ki, aur sangat bhagoron ki and Rafale ka plane urrana tha, par file hi urra di...phurrr!

Walia adds that PM Modi’s views of the Silchar rally in Assam, on the same day clocked 3.6 lakh views and his rally at Ahmednagar the next day garnered 9.1 lakh views. On the same day, the press conference of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at Delhi barely touched 12,000 views.

At the press conference, Sidhu took on PM Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath. “This is the Indian Army, Yogiji, not your election tool, and not your PM’s sena (army). You have destroyed every institution in the country, only the army was left. Now you want to win elections by using the army? Chowkidar amiro ke ghar hote hai ya gareebon ke? China sumundra ke neeche pul bana raha hai. Russia robots ki army bana raha hai aur aap chowkidar bana rahe ho, woh bhi chor (Who employs chowkidar, the rich or the poor? China is constructing a bridge under the sea and Russia is making an army of robots, while you are creating chowkidars, those too, thieves),” Sidhu says in the video. The clip went viral after it was uploaded by a news website on Facebook; later Sidhu’s team uploaded it on his official Facebook page.

Treating his followers and trolls with his daily dose of Sidhuisms on Twitter, the Punjab minister says he debuted on Facebook only recently. “I hardly use it, but the response has been tremendous,” Sidhu says. The cricketer-turned-politician’s Twitter following crossed 5 lakh in March after his account was reactivated by the IYC team in a run-up to last year’s polls in five states. Sidhu had claimed a strike rate of 80% in the rallies addressed by him in the Hindi heartland in terms of seats won by Congress.

In the video, Sidhu attacks his trolls too, saying, “Aapne loktantra ko trolltantra bana diya hai.” And ends it on a question, asking, “Which chowkidar was on duty when Vijay Mallaya and Nirav Modi ran away from the country? Anyone who questions Modi is branded an anti-national. Even LK Advaniji is questioning it now. Chowkidar ki khul gayi pol...”