Leveraging Social Media: Narendra Modi’s Successful Prime Ministerial Campaign

AN OBAMAESQUE CAMPAIGN When Narendra Modi (Modi) took the oath of office as the new Prime Minister of India on May 26, 2014, one of his political opponents tweeted: “No selfies on stage!!!! Remarkable restraint :-)” This jibe at Modi was prompted by the selfies he had posted on social media from time to time during the campaign for the 2014 general elections in India, which as observers pointed out, had been fought and won largely over social media.

In fact, days earlier, Modi’s election victory tweet “India has won! Good days are coming.” went on to become the most retweeted tweet of all time from India. Just before the election results were declared, Modi said in a blog post, “This is the first election where social media has assumed an important role and the importance of this medium will only increase in the years to come…. It became a direct means of information and gave us the much-needed local pulse.......