PM Narendra Modi crosses 8 million Twitter followers

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has added about seven million new followers on popular social networking site Facebook to become world's second most popular leader even as his Twitter following expanded to 8 million.

Modi, an active social media user, has added seven million Facebook followers in the just five months to have a fan base of over 25 million. He ranks next to only US President Barack Obama, who has over 43.6 million followers on the world's largest social networking site.

Similarly, Modi is the third most followed on microblogging site Twitter with over 8 million followers, behind Obama and the Pope.

In July, Modi had over 18 million Facebook friends and 5.09 million Twitter followers.

Obama leads the popularity chart on Twitter with over 43 million followers, followed by the Pope Francis, who is followed by over 14 million people.

"Since his (Modi) election win in May earlier this year, the Prime Minister's Twitter account (@narendramodi) has doubled in followers adding more than 4 million followers," Twitter said in a statement.

His election victory tweet remains the most re-tweeted tweet of all time from India at 70,586, it added.

On Facebook, his post on INS Vikramaditya received 8.22 lakh likes and his Independence Day post had 7.72 lakh likes. His post on meeting with G-20 leaders notched up 4.47 lakh likes and the one about his meeting with Mark Zuckerberg had 6.19 lakh likes.

The Prime Minister continued innovating on social media as he became the first Prime Minister across the world to take a Twitter Mirror on tour with him, Twitter said.

Twitter Mirror is a backstage photo-booth for behind the scenes and exclusive moments involving celebrities and influencers for live events.

During his visit to Australia, Modi tweeted using the tool with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott as well as students from Queensland University of Technology, Twitter said.