KOLKATA: The number of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's followers on Twitter has increased by four times to reach 16.4 million since taking office last year, but he still remains behind Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan.
According to a list of the most followed Twitter personalities from India in 2015 released by the social media forum on Monday, Big B's @SrBachchan account remains the most followed one with 18.1 million followers.
This year Modi (@narendramodi) takes the third spot after the number of its followers quadrupled from 4 million when he took office last May to over 16 million now, making him the biggest gainer on the top 10 list in 2015.
With 16.4 million followers, the Prime Minister is close to SRK who is number two on Twitter with 16.5 million followers, according to the "Year On Twitter 2015" report.
SRK also created a record as one of his tweets became the most retweeted one in India during the year.
His selfie with British boyband One Direction's former member Zayn Malik at the Asian Awards in London took Twitter by storm with over 1,41,000 retweets and nearly 18.3 million views globally.
Modi's "Selfie With Daughter" campaign on Twitter to promote rights of the girl child was one of the most popular hashtags on the microblogging site. The report said there were over 3,75,000 #SelfieWithDaughter tweets.
On his first year anniversary in office, there were over 1,79,000 “#SaalEkShuruaatAnek” tweets.
Modi is the only non-Bollywood personality who has managed to stay in the top ten list.
The fourth and fifth spots are occupied by the other two Khans. Aamir has 15.5 million followers while Salman is half a million short than him.
At number six in the list is actress Deepika Padukone followed by Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra.
With 10.6 million followers, Akshay Kumar is at number nine while musician AR Rahman made it to the tenth spot.
Among the most influential moments on Twitter, India beating Pakistan in the first match of the cricket world cup in 2015 led the list.
#INDvsPAK drew a record-breaking 118.3 million impressions on Twitter, the report said.
With over 9 million tweets this season, #IPL was among the most popular hashtags.
In the world of politics, #DelhiElections and #BiharResults led the conversations on the social media site.
Other popular topics were related to Diwali, Independence Day, floods in Chennai and the completion of 20 years of the iconic Bollywood film "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge".
In November, @MakeInIndia, one of the largest economic development initiatives undertaken by the Indian government, had become the first non-US brand to get its own Twitter emoji for a worldwide audience.
For the Diwali festival, Twitter had launched an emoji in the form of a lamp.
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TOP OF THE TOPS
1) Amitabh Bachchan (18.1 m)
2) Shah Rukh Khan (16.5 m)
3) Narendra Modi (16.4 m)
4) Aamir Khan (15.5 m)
5) Salman Khan (15 m)
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POPULAR HASHTAG
With over 9 million tweets this season, #IPL was among the most popular hashtags
