On May 16, the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won a staggering 336 of the 543 seats in India’s Lower House of Parliament. During the election season, Modi focused on development and job creation–a critical issue as the World Bank recently ranked India 134 out of 189 countries on its “ease of doing business” index. In the days just after Modi became Prime Minister, $600 million was pumped into Indian stock markets by foreign institutional investors.
So how did he do it? Sweeping change requires sweeping reach. Experts point to the number of rallies at which he spoke: between September 15, 2013 and May 10, 2014, Modi addressed more than 400 gatherings (an average of 50 per month) ranging across 300,000 kilometers. Some credit the powerful influence of tweeting—56 million tweets about the election were noted in 2014–and Modi far outpaced the opposition in favorable social media. Indian citizens were certainly following Modi on Twitter. When he proclaimed victory with a tweet: it was retweeted more than 66,000 times and favorited more than 41,000 times – a record in India.
Read more at MSL Group’s initiative, Voice of India 2014.
