PM Modi first world leader to cross 30 million followers on Instagram

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become the most-followed elected world leader on photo-sharing app Instagram, ahead of US President Donald Trump, Indonesian President Joko Widodo and former president Barack Obama. With 30 million followers, PM Modi leads the list of world leaders on Instagram, with Joko Widodo coming in a close second with 25.6 million followers on the popular app owned by Facebook.

Barack Obama comes in third with 24.8 million followers while his successor, Donald Trump, trails behind with 14.9 million followers.

BJP's working president JP Nadda congratulated PM Modi on becoming the most-followed world leader on Instagram.

"PM @NarendraModi crosses 30 million followers on Instagram. He is the most followed world leader on Instagram ahead of US President Trump as well as former US President Obama. This is yet another testament to his popularity and connect with the youth," he tweeted, sharing a screenshot of PM Modi's follower count.

PM Modi, known for being social media savvy, often shares photos from the events he participates in. Some of the most popular images he has shared on Instagram are from the informal meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Tamil Nadu's Mamallapuram this week, his presence at the sold-out "Howdy, Modi!" event in Texas in September, and a candid shot of him playing with the eight-month-old granddaughter of BJP MP Satyanarayan Jatiya.

A photo from PM Modi's early morning plogging- jogging and picking up trash- on a beach in Mamallapuram got close to four million likes on Instagram. He also received four million likes on his photo with sports star PV Sindhu after she won a gold in the Badminton World Championships.

Close behind PM Modi and President Trump, are Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with 3 million followers, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel with around a million followers each, and Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson with 227,000 followers.

On micro-blogging site Twitter, PM Modi remains immensely popular as well, with close to 50 million followers. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, on his official website, claimed that till 2013, he was India's most-followed politician on Twitter, until being overtaken that year by PM Modi.

On Twitter, PM Modi is behind President Trump, who has over 65 million followers. Both, however, are dwarfed by Mr Obama, who has close to 109 million followers on the micro-blogging site.