New Delhi, Mar 16 (IANS): With Twitter becoming a hotbed of politics ahead of the 2019 general election, supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried to sway the social media mood on Saturday in its favour by posting tweets with #Dalal_List.

Many of the tweets, clearly aimed at portraying Congress leaders as middlemen, referred to a statement of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi made on how only a fraction of the funds released by the government reaches the intended beneficiary.

"Rajiv Gandhi had said for every rupee sent to common man only 17 paise reached him. #Dalal_List of Cong is long - top leaders themselves became DALAL in huge deals like Bofors, National Herald, AugustaWestland and they left welfare schemes like MANREGA for Karyakartas 2 make DALALI," wrote one user.

Names of top Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi frequently appeared in the tweets with #Dalal_List that started trending early on Saturday, after generating over 15,000 tweets in the category.

Some users even targeted the Aam Admi Party and a few journalists.

"When it comes to #Dalal_List we should mention Durbari Journalists like Vir Sanghvi, Coupta Ji, P James Roy, Chordesai & sister of Hafeez Saeed," wrote another.