Twitter's Modi Express steams past 600,000 followers

As the state of Gujarat commemorated its 52nd Gaurav Diwas (Foundation Day), the Modi Express on Twitter celebrated another milestone when it crossed the make of 600,000 ‘followers’ in record time! This once again reaffirms why he is truly called the ‘King of Social Media’ among the politicians!

This mammoth increase among Narendra Modi’s followers comes at a time when he featured on the cover page of Time Magazine, which lauded the decade of peace and development in Gujarat. Other luminaries who have come on the cover include Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Lal Bahadur Shastri. Incidentally, he is the only Indian Chief Minister and the first BJP leader to feature on the list. Roughly at the same time, Brookings Institution, one of Washington DCs oldest and most reputed think tanks carried a comprehensive story by William Antholis, its managing editor. Brookings lauded the atmosphere of development that prevailed in Gujarat.

In the last month, Modi himself has been a busy man. He handed over employment letters to a record 65,000 youth across Gujarat as a part of the Swami Vivekananda Youth Week. Such a mass recruitment programme for students studied at Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) has been virtually unheard of in the past. Gujarat made history in the last few weeks when it dedicated 600 MW solar power to the nation. This feat remains unparalleled in India’s history. Gujarat also dedicated India’s first 1 MW Canal-top Solar Power Project to the Nation and is now focusing on generating power from flowing canal water. These energy initiatives will not only save hectares of land, but also will conserve crores of litres of water that would have been lost due to evaporation.

On May 1st, also celebrated as Gujarat Gaurav Diwas and the same day his Twitter followers exceeded the 600,000 mark, Modi inaugurated the first Ahmedabad National Book fair, paid tributes to stalwart of the Maha Gujarat Movement Indulal Yagnik and attended a cultural extravaganza is Dahod apart from other celebrations across the state.

Thus, with so much mass contact and the completion of innovative initiatives, it is natural that Modi’s popularity on the cyber world would soar. His all new website has emerged as a centre of healthy debate, information and reporting of latest news.

Modi himself remains a committed believer in latest technology. Not only that, he has invigorated the working of the Gujarat government with latest technology. He has received the ‘e-Ratna’ Award by the Computer Society of India and the ‘e-Gov strategies and ICT enabled initiatives’ at the Chief Minister’s Office were conferred ‘Best Government to Citizen Initiative of the Year Award’ at the prestigious eIndia summit in December 2011. At the CSI Nihilent e-Governance Awards 2011, ICT initiatives at the Chief Ministers were accorded ‘Award of Excellence- Departmental Level.’

Today as more and more youngsters and even celebrities are getting hooked to social media, there is no doubt which Twitter account features of their ‘must follow’ list…