Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s social media game seems to be getting better. Not only have his followers (read bots) increased considerably, his social media presence and interaction has got people talking. Needless to say, Gandhi’s social media reincarnation has also become the talking point of TV news debates.

A case in point is his recent tweet featuring “good boy” Pidi.

The tweet received over 12,000 retweets and over 30,000 likes. Some mocked him, while others were surprised by Gandhi’s metamorphosis into a social media-savvy politician.

More than Gandhi, however, it seems like Pidi has become the star pet. Not only on social media, but also on television news.

While channels such as Times Now and Republic TV have dedicated themselves to busting the “love jihad” stories in Kerala, CNN-News18, India Today, Aaj Tak and News18 India were debating Pidi’s role in changing Congress’ social media game. We kid you not.

That was India Today’s “The Pidi debate” featuring spokespersons from the Congress and the BJP, which had anchor Anjana Om Kashyap dwelling on some, err, finer points of Gandhi’s tweet.

She says, and we quote: “Does it make sense? Here we have a little dog who we are saying namaste karo, then we are putting a biscuit on his nose, then you’re asking him to balance… I don’t even want to get into what goes into training a dog like this. I think it is very, very weird, you tell a dog namaste karo and put a biscuit on his nose…”

At a later stage, Kashyap questions how such people can become Opposition leaders. “The country wants a strong Opposition leader. A leader whom we can trust,” she says. Umm… we’re not quite sure if it is the Opposition leader or the choice of “news debate” that is questionable.

Meanwhile, the top bands read somewhat like this – “BJP-Cong ‘Dogfight’”, “Pidi fight becomes political”, “RaGa’s humour a refreshing change?” and “Cong-BJP spar over ‘Pidi’ the dog”.

India Today Group’s Hindi news channel Aaj Tak’s too had “Halla bol” with Kashyap discussing the same thing. The highlight was this verbal exchange between BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and Congress spokesperson Ragini Nayak during the debate, as they try to poke fun at each other.

CNN-News18’s Big Debate by Sanket Upadhyay was not too far behind in cashing in on Pidi’s popularity.

“CongPidiDebate” was more focused on Rahul’s newfound popularity on social media and whether or not his tweets would convert into votes. It had some data to prove the turnaround of Rahul’s social media game since October 2015. The data showed that within a gap of two years, the average retweets received by Rahul increased four times.

While the debate was less of noise and more talk about Gandhi’s prospects in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh this year, it was pegged on the Pidi tweet.

News18 India had its own set of questions to ask its viewers – “Kya Modi ki BJP ko Rahul Gandhi ka naya aakramak rukh chunauti de payega (Will Modi’s BJP be challenged by Rahul Gandhi’s new avataar)?”

Nothing, however, can beat BJP spokie Sambit Patra doing a Venkaiah Naidu on Halla Bol and stating, “Pidi yaane performance disaster.”