The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi is all set to be the Most Followed Leader of State today at approximately 10.30 PM as outgoing US President Barack Obama vacates the White House while President-Elect Donald Trump takes the oath to become the 45th President of the United States. Known popularly as the POTUS, whoever occupies this post is the most widely followed state leader in the world on social media. However, this trend is to be broken today as the number of followers of the PM on mainstream sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagramand Youtube areset to exceed those of the incoming president.
Narendra Modi is well known for his net-savvy nature and his fan following on social media has been a subject of intense debate and speculation worldwide. The number of followers on social media is often hailed as one measure of thepopularity of state leaders in the modern world. This has not gone down well with all circles of observers for obvious reasons. Critics and cynics suggest that these numbers are bloated to reflect well on the image of the PM while others have stated that social media following should not be the yardstick of popularity. Nonetheless, it is true from today, PM Modi will boast of 26.5 million followers on Twitter,39.2 million followers on Facebook, 3.2 million followers on Google+,1.99 million followers on LinkedIn,5.8 million followers on Instagram and a relatively modest5.91 lakh followers on YouTube.
Net-Savvy PM
Modi’s mobile app is the most widely used app for any present political figure and has close to 10 million downloads. What is interesting is the fact that NarendraModi has shown the openness and the desirability to be available on social media. He has also shown the keen understanding of the natural politician in handling himself and his image. He is probablyshown more interest in delivering public services and deliver other features like subsidies directly to bank accounts than any past public leader has. So far, Rs 1.5 lakh crore has been directly sent to about 32 crore beneficiaries without any intervention from other agencies. His tweets have been extremely popular as well. Some notable campaigns tagged by him and hence popularised are#Sandesh2Soldiers, #MyCleanIndia, #IncredibleIndia and #SelfieWithDaughter. Recently, he used the new BHIM app to empower the poor and the marginalised to be a part of the Digital India dream. In many respects, the PM himself is an ambassador of the digital dream. He has also addressed grievance redressal and systemic issues personally thanks in major part to the PRAGATI sessions held every month.
