"Rahul Gandhi, Go Write This A Hundred Times": BJP Mocks Facebook Blooper

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday mistakenly referred to Mizoram as Manipur on Facebook, exposing himself to criticism ahead of the assembly polls in the northeastern state.

The glitch occurred while Mr Gandhi was sharing a story on Sainik Schools in Mizoram opening its doors to girls after over half a century. The only problem was, he referred to the state as Manipur.

The post was deleted. Minutes later, the Congress chief shared the story again, with the necessary correction.

On Twitter, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya posted a screenshot of Mr Gandhi's post, saying "it is this ignorance about the Northeastern that is so problematic".

"Rahul Gandhi go and write this a hundred times, "Mizoram and Manipur are two different states in the North East of India and I will remember that for the rest of my term as President of the Congress party!" (Edits note after being called out!)," Mr Malviya tweeted, in a jibe at Rahul Gandhi after he shared the post again.

This is not the first time the Congress chief has inadvertently presented incorrect information on social media. Last year, he posted a table detailing the rise in prices of certain commodities, including LPG, lentils, tomatoes, onions and milk, but got the numbers wrong. He later deleted the tweet and posted another with a corrected table.

Nevertheless, leaders from other parties have also fallen prey to the accidental slip-of-tongue. In 2014, soon after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister by a thumping majority, he referred to Bhutan as "Nepal" while addressing the joint session of the neighbouring nation's parliament in Thimpu. Netizens reacted by posting hashtags such as #Bhutan, #Nepal and #TravelTipstoModi.

A year earlier, the BJP leader had referred to the Mahatma as Mohanlal Karamchand Gandhi. He is also known to have erroneously noted that Alexander the Great came to Bihar and died by the Ganges.