Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s social media presence went up another notch on Tuesday after photos of him practising the Japanese martial art aikido emerged on Twitter and were soon widely shared.

The photos of Gandhi training with Sensei Paritosh Kar were first posted by Twitter user Bharad, who claimed he had been in the same aikido class as the politician. This came after Gandhi, speaking at the PHD Chamber of Commerce on October 26, said that he was a sports enthusiast and had a black belt in the Japanese martial art.

In response to a question from boxing champ Vijender Singh on why politicians don’t usually participate in sports, the Nehru-Gandhi scion said: “I do exercise, run and swim, and I am a black belt in aikido, but [I] don’t speak about it publicly. Sports is very important for me and I spend at least an hour doing sports.”

Singh suggested that he put up photos of his activities on social media.

Gandhi, who has often being criticised for his handling of the party, which has seen a series of electoral defeats in various state elections after its loss in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, has upped his social media game recently – and people have noticed.

After several wisecracks on his political opponents were widely shared, prompting humour that it was not Gandhi but someone else who was responsible for his new Twitter-savvy avataar, the Congress leader joked back on October 29 that it was his dog, Pidi, who was behind the transformation.

Unsurprisingly, as the photos of Gandhi doing aikido went viral, the praise was also accompanied by a fair share of jokes.

Meanwhile, in an interview to News18, Gandhi’s coach Kar said that aikido, which the politician had been practising for eight years, made him calm and patient. “Aikido is a non-aggressive martial art. So, it makes him become a non-aggressive gentleman,” Kar said. “He is a respectful person and he respects his teachers. He is a genius, actually. If anybody speaks anything [negative] about him, he does not react. Because of aikido, the attacks just don’t hit him.”