Prime Minister Narendra Modi reigns supreme on social media yet again, as his Twitter following is unmatched by any other Indian, as the micro-blogging site announced on Tuesday.
He saw his follower base swell from 24.6 million in 2016 to 37.5 million, a spiffy 52 percent. Coming in second was none other than Amitabh Bachchan who is known for tweeting out a lot of his own photos with birthday and good wishes, because #yolo.
Interestingly, there is only one woman among the top 10 followed Indians – Deepika Padukone.
Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar also saw a growth of 56 percent in his follower base on Twitter this year.
This is the first time ever that Kohli and Tendulkar both have made it to the list of top 10 most followed Indian accounts, Twitter said.
Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan saw their fan base on Twitter grow at 40 percent each. However, Shah Rukh — with 30.9 million followers — was ahead of Salman who had 28.5 million followers.
Virat Kohli’s follower growth was the highest at 61 percent while Aamir Khan’s was the lowest at 18 percent. Priyanka Chopra missed getting onto the list by just about 2,00,000 followers, trailing Virat Kohli.
PM Modi’s “Mann Ki Baat” was also one of the most widely discussed hashtags of the year, aiding his popularity. Hashtags for the ICC Trophy, India vs Pakistan matches, IPL and the Women’s World Cup were also the most used, adding to Kohli and Tendulkar’s Twitter popularity.