What Twitter tells you about Hardik Patel

Surprised with the way 23-year-old Gujarati activist Hardik Patel organised an agitation of such an epic scale, that it would leave any politician and political party burning with envy? Pundits are now busy attempting to decode him - attributing motives to his agitation for reservation to “Patidars” under OBC category and even leaking conspiracy theories behind his movement.

It goes to Hardik Patel’s credit that he had planned an agitation step-by-step by creating an organisation, taking up an emotive issue, connecting with people, holding small meetings at district and block levels, to finally launch a massive rally in Ahmadabad on August 25. But on Twitter you learn something new about Patel:

1. The young activist goes by the Twitter name of Hardik Patel Patidar and his handle is @ca34581e6d09443

His followers have been continuously increasing since August 25. On August 26, while writing this piece, the number of his followers increased roughly from 1,700 to 1,981. He is following 392 people and has posted just 59 tweets since his first tweet on March 15, 2014. 

2. He follows weird people on Twitter

Here are a few people he pays close attention to on the microblogging website: SexxxiSarcasmic @LipLush1; Serial F*ckup @SerialF*ckup; Untastic Mr Fitz @UnFitz; Liz @lovemyboots111; Heather Carden @HechtHeather; Petunia @GirlPetunia; and LIL MAMA @insanejanex; Bodybuilding John @BodybuildingLog.

3. He is fond of famous people

He likes all the Kardashians (Kim Kardashian, Kardashian Kids and Kourtney Kardashian) besides Britney Spears and Tom Hanks. Among Bollywood personalities, some of his favourites are Shankar Mahadevan, Sonakshi Sinha, Shruti Seth, Amrita Rao, Madhur Bhandarkar, Sunidhi Chauhan, Anupam Kher, Kailsh Kher, Shekhar Kapur, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Arjun Rampal, Dilip Kumar, Anushka Sharma, Riteish Deshmukh, Farah Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Karan Johar, Boman Irani, Deepika Padukone, Sonam Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Salman Khan , Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Konkana Sen Sharma, Shahid Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan.

4. He is anti-Modi and anti-Amit Shah, but likes Kejriwal

He is clearly close to the beliefs and style of Arvind Kejriwal and AAP. Before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he had predicted that the BJP will bag 15 of the 26 seats in Gujarat and AAP will win 60 seats throughout the country. He had even appealed to his followers to vote for the party. His calculation that AAP will win at least three seats also proved wrong.

गुजरात में BJP को 26में से15 सीट मिलेगी . 26में से 26सीट कभी नहीं मिल सकती . केजरीवाल जी को INDIA me 60सीट मिलेगी .

— Hardik Patel Patidar (@ca34581e6d09443) March 18, 2014