PM Modi leads in retweets, BigB has largest following in India

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi leads the list of retweets with his election winning post on Twitter being shared by over 70,515 people on the micro-blogging site.

"India has won! Bharat ki vijay! Achhe din aane wale hai" remains the most retweeted tweet on Twitter till date from India. Following in the list at 51,981 retweets is actor Salman Khan's tweet of his film Kick's trailer.

"There has never been a better time to be on Twitter in India, with the experience of so many events - big and small - made even more compelling by Twitter," Twitter market director (South and Southeast Asia) Rishi Jaitly said.

The 'Year On Twitter' data shows Indians are discovering content around and connecting with their heroes, politics and live sporting events, especially cricket, he added. "We also expect to see a surge in conversations around digital diplomacy and digital governance to connect politicians, ministries and citizens through live public conversations," he said.

Other tweets in the top 10 include Rajinikanth's (@superstarrajini) maiden tweet, debut of ISRO's Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) and Sachin Tendulkar's (@sachin_rt) tribute to Aussie cricketer Phil Hughes who succumbed to an injury while playing.

Globally, celebrity Ellen DeGeneres' post of her selfie along with a host of Hollywood stars at the Oscars was the most retweeted (by 3,367,870 accounts).

Superstar Amitabh Bachchan is the most followed celebrity on Twitter with over 1.18 crore followers, followed by Shah Rukh Khan (1.02 crore), Aamir Khan (9.86 crore), Salman Khan (9.42 crore) and Narendra Modi (8.42 crore).

Modi saw the highest growth in followers at 54.45 per cent with the addition of over 4.62 crore followers in 2014.

Top hashtags of the year included #WorldCup2014, #MH370, #MufflerMan and #KashmirFloods.

The new joinees on Twitter this year include President of India (@RashtrapatiBhvn), ISRO's Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (@MoHFW_INDIA), Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) and Uday Kotak (@udaykotak), among others.

Notably, Rajinikanth joined Twitter on May 4 and within 24 hours over two lakh of his fans flocked to follow him on the site. The number more than doubled within a week and in less than six months, it had breached the one million-mark.