Narendra Modi takes over @ PMO India, the official Twitter handle of PM’s office

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took over @PMOIndia, the official Twitter handle of PM’s office and began tweeting. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his first day in the PMO by offering tributes to Mahatma Gandhi," he tweeted at around 7.40pm, followed by more tweets.

All previous tweets of former prime minister Manmohan Singh and PMO were deleted from the account, and Mr Modi’s photo and introduction became part of the profile. All followers of @ PMOIndia were shifted to this handle, and he started following some of the new cabinet ministers.

The account was restored with original tweets at around 6:30pm, but within an hour, old tweets were removed from the handle. Modi also continued to have his personal account @narendramodi with over 4.4 million followers. Last week, the office of Manmohan Singh had archived the tweets of this account and its 1.24 m followers shifted to the new handle. The account was described as "archival material under the RTI Act for @PMOIndia till 20/5/2014".