"US President @BarackObama is still the most followed world leader, with close to 60 million followers but Pope Francis (@Pontifex) is catching up fast with close to 20 million followers on his nine language accounts," the annual Twiplomacy analysis of Twitter said. "Since his election in late May 2014, India's Prime Minister @NarendraModi has skyrocketed into third place, surpassing Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (@RT_Erdogan) and the @WhiteHouse with more than six million followers each," it added. Modi had 10,902,510 followers till March 24, 2015.
In terms of influence, the Pope was the most effective. Modi was the fifth most influential leader preceded by Obama. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was the most "followed" foreign minister in the world.