New Delhi: The Congress on Friday released photos of its president Rahul Gandhi trekking on his way to the Mansarovar lake in China as ‘evidence’. The party also released a snapshot of his Fitbit detail, which is a measure of distance walked and calories burnt. But what prompted the Congress to do this?

A suspicion on Rahul’s presence in Mansarovar was raised first by Twitter-users, who suggested that the Congress president was tweeting photos of lakes in the vicinity of Mansarovar which were taken from an angle that made them strangely identical to the photos available on Google.  

Then the BJP came into the picture. National social media in-charge of BJP women’s wing Priti Gandhi tweeted asking whether the Congress president was downloading photos from the internet to tweet.

The matter didn’t end there. Mumbai BJP spokesperson Suresh Nakhua jumped into the fray calling the photos "fake". Even Union minister Giriraj Singh retweeted Nakhua's tweet.

Soon the BJP’s ally Akali Dal jumped on the "fake photo" bandwagon with its spokesperson Manjinder S Sirsa taking a sharp dig at Rahul. Sirsa alleged that Rahul was tweeting downloaded photos and not those taken by himself. He even went to the extent of calling him a "nakli janeudhari". 

With popular perception being against Rahul and the BJP exploiting it to the fullest, the Congress finally released a set of photos on Friday showing Rahul in a grey jacket, holding sticks and donning a sunglass. The party even released Fitbit details that are claimed to be of its president. According to those details, Rahul had taken 46,433 steps that day when the screenshot was taken. That translates into a 34.31km walk.

However, the BJP is not satisfied. Giriraj himself tweeted, questioning the absence of the shadow of the stick Rahul was holding in his photo. Giriraj called it "photoshopped".

The Congress had hoped to score some points with Rahul's Mansarovar yatra but now finds itself in trouble. And if politics is a game of perceptions, the BJP has ensured that the suspicion factor stays alive.