Modi loses 3 lakh Twitter followers? Don’t put your money on that number

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost 313,312 Twitter followers on Wednesday, a day after he announced a major demonetisation move that banned use of existing Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in circulation, news reports said.

The news was widely circulated after Catch News, a news website, cited data from analytic tool Twitter Counter that pointed to a drop of 3.1 lakh in Modi’s Twitter followers, linking it to possible resentment among them over the currency ban.

However, data from the same tool, reviewed by HT showed Modi also added 4,30,128 followers on Thursday, which was nearly 1 lakh more than the loss reported on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear if there was a technical glitch. Twitter India, when contacted, declined to “comment on personal profiles.”

Modi, who tweets as @narendramodi, is the most followed Indian on Twitter with 24.2 million followers. On an average, he adds 27,000 new followers every day and his they rarely leave.

Data from Trackalytics, another analytic tool, showed Modi’s Twitter account hasn’t seen any big drop in number of followers since June 2014 and he has been consistently adding followers.

Opinion on Twitter has been divided over Modi’s November 8 decision, with people complaining but also saying they will be patient if it is in the greater interest of the country.

(With inputs from Anirban Ghoshal)