File picture of Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju is now a man in search of an identity - not in the real world, but on Twitter. While attempting to set up a personal Twitter handle, the junior minister realised that the handle with his name had already been taken, as was another suitable name.
Home Ministry officials said Mr Rijiju, 43, on Thursday sought to register the handle most obviously close to his name - @Kiren_Rijiju. But he found it already existed, as a fake account.
The handle carried a photo of Mr Rijiju, had been set up in 2009 and has not seen a new tweet since then.
Another possible handle for the minister, @krijiju, too turned out to be fake. This one was followed by over 600 people.
The Home Ministry has now gotten involved. Officials say the Ministry has written to Twitter, and asked the micro-blogging site to verify the handles and free them up for use by the minister.
"Both are dummy accounts and are not verified that is why we are getting them verified," said a Home Ministry official, who is handling this issue.
Mr Rijiju already has a presence on Twitter, through his official handle, @MOSHomeIndia, which is operated by the Home Ministry. The attempt to register the handle was meant to give him his own platform to Tweet personally.
"We are not closing this official handle... The official account would be handled by the Ministry," said the Home Ministry official.