DHAKA: Indian Prime Minister designate Narendra Modi is the sixth most followed leader on Twitter globally, according to a survey by Twiplomacy, a study of world leaders on the microblogging site. 

Modi’s Twitter handle has 4,240,643 followers, with a weekly growth of 6.77 percent, monthly increase of 12.22 percent and quarterly growth of 24.26 per cent. 

The most followed world leader on Twitter is US President Barack Obama, followed by Pope Francis. 

Indonesia President SB Yudhoyono is in third position followed by the official White House account and Turkish President Abdullah Gul in the fifth position, according to the study.

Twiplomacy is New York-based Burson-Marsteller's annual study aimed at identifying the extent to which world leaders use Twitter.

Earlier, social networking site Facebook had claimed that Narendra Modi had the fastest growing Facebook page for any elected leader in the world. 

After Obama, who has over 40 million followers on Facebook, Modi is the second most popular politician in the world. 

Modi has overtaken Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential candidate, who now has 11.345 million followers on Facebook. 

From the day 16th Lok Sabha elections were announced in February to May 12, when polling ended, 29 million people in India made 227 million posts, comments, shares, and likes regarding the Indian elections on Facebook. 

As many as 13 million people made 75 million interactions regarding Modi. 

Source: TPI

BDST:  1843 HRS, May 23, 2014