President Pranab Mukherjee has joined the Twitter bandwagon, attracting thousands of followers on the website within an hour. He is the first serving president of India to join Twitter.
Former president Abdul Kalam is already on Twitter with the handle @apj_abdul_kalam. President Mukherjee already has a Facebook page with over five lakh followers on the world’s biggest social network.
In December last year, an account by the name @POIndia was opened by someone. It claimed to be the official Twitter handle of the president. However, his office later clarified that Mukherjee had not joined Twitter and @POIndia was a fake account.
So far, the president’s Twitter account @RashtrapatiBhvn has just sent three tweets and has over 6,000 followers.
Below is the first tweet sent by the president:
Rashtrapati Bhavan is now on Twitter. Please follow us for regular updates.
— President of India (@RashtrapatiBhvn) July 1, 2014
Here’s how Twitterati welcomed Mukherjee to the website:
Honoured to welcome President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee @RashtrapatiBhvn to Twitter.
— Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) July 1, 2014
@narendramodi effect: Even an old school man Pranab Mukherjee, enters Twitter ->@RashtrapatiBhvn Where is Pappu, the “youth iCON”?
— Kiran Kumar S (@KiranKS) July 1, 2014
Follow The President of India Pranab Mukherjee on Twitter @RashtrapatiBhvn .. RT to spread the msge
— NaMoChaiParty (@NaMoChaiParty) July 1, 2014
The President of #India Pranab Mukherjee is on Twitter @RashtrapatiBhvn named after his official residence #FF pic.twitter.com/ziH7MKN5aV
— Twiplomacy (@Twiplomacy) July 1, 2014
Now following the President of India @RashtrapatiBhvn #GoodDayAtOffice
— Raheel Khursheed (@Raheelk) July 1, 2014
Twitter has become a popular platform for world leaders to connect directly with the public.
US president Barack Obama is the most followed world leader on the micro-blogging website with nearly 44 million followers. Pope Francis, who operates accounts in nine languages, is a distant second with a total of 14 million followers. Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi have 5.08 million and 5.06 million followers, respectively.
