New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has sought to turn the tables on critics questioning the sudden surge in his popularity on Twitter with a sarcastic tweet "confessing" that his pet dog was behind the posts. He also put out a video of the pet.

"People (have) been asking who tweets for this guy... I'm coming clean, it's me... Pidi. I'm way cooler than him. Look what I can do with a tweet... oops... treat!" Rahul tweeted.

The post immediately attracted considerable comment and saw former Congress functionary and now BJP minister in Assam HimantaBiswaSarma responding that he recognised the pet that Rahul kept feeding when Sarma sought to discuss political issues before the assembly polls in 2016.

"Sir who knows him better than me. Still remember you busy feeding biscuits to him while we wanted to discuss urgent Assam's issues (sic)," Sarma said in a tweet. 

In the video, Rahul can be heard encouraging his pet Pidi to do namaste, at which it stands up on its haunches. Placing a dog treat on Pidi's muzzle, he instructs the dog to stay. Then, at the snap of his fingers, the treat disappears with a skilful twitch of its head and Rahul exclaims, "good boy".