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Updated: Mar 17, 2019 12:48 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top BJP leaders on Sunday prefixed ‘chowkidar’ to their name on Twitter as part of a campaign launched on Saturday that asked people to take the ‘main bhi chowkidar hoon’ pledge.

The move is a counter to Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s pitch that mocks PM Modi for describing himself as the country’s watchman. ‘Chowkidar chor hai’ (Watchman is a thief) has been a running theme in Rahul Gandhi’s campaign against the BJP for months.

Gandhi has often argued that his pitch, which started with his allegation that the government bought overpriced Rafale fighter jets, resonated with people.

This morning, PM Modi’s personal Twitter handle was changed to ‘Chowkidar Narendra Modi’ and that of BJP chief Amit Shah’s was ‘Chowkidar Amit Shah’. Soon scores of BJP leaders made the change too, following up on the BJP’s “Main bhi Chowkidar” campaign launched yesterday.

As part of this campaign, in a tweet put out on his @narendramodi handle yesterday, PM Modi wrote, “Your Chowkidar is standing firm & serving the nation. But, I am not alone. Everyone who is fighting corruption, dirt, social evils is a Chowkidar. Everyone working hard for the progress of India is a Chowkidar. Today, every Indian is saying-#MainBhiChowkidar.”

The tweet was accompanied by a 3 minute 45 second video that begins with the PM addressing the people saying, “Your chowkidar is absolutely alert”. The video then moves into a song with visuals of people from across the length and breadth of the country, singing “main bhi chowkidar hun” as part of the chorus of the song.