New Delhi, July 11: In what comes as fresh testimony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s global appeal and popularity, a mere reference of him catapulted the traction on social media handles of Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer to newer heights, precisely over 10-30 times in terms of views and likes.
PM Modi visited Austria, the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister in 40 years, as part of his two-nation tour including Russia. While both Russian and Austria gave a red carpet welcome to PM Modi, the Indian diaspora in both nations also gave him a rousing reception. Meanwhile, what has caught the attention of Netizens is the spike in Chancellor Nehammer’s social media engagement, apparently because of reference to PM Modi.
The Austrian Chancellor’s two posts, one about welcoming PM Modi to Vienna and the other about a selfie with the latter received unprecedented likes and views. The July 10 post by Chancellor Nehammer featuring a selfie with PM Modi received 3,100 reposts, 36,000 likes and 1.3 million plus views.
His other post tagging PM Modi and welcoming him to Austria, dated July 6, garnered 2,600 reposts, 23,000 likes and over 2.5 million views. Both these posts garnered unprecedented traction. A brief study of the Austrian Chancellor’s timeline shows his posts gather an average of less than 100 reposts, 300 likes and around 25,000 views. Notably, PM Modi visited Austria after wrapping his landmark visit to Russia.
This was the first visit by an Indian PM to Austria in over 40 years. It was late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who first visited the European nation in 1983. On his visit to Austria, PM Modi was welcomed by Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg at the Vienna airport. Later, PM Modi was accorded a warm welcome by Chancellor Nehammer as the two met for a private dinner, before the official talks.
Both the leaders hugged each other and the Austrian Chancellor also clicked a selfie with PM Modi in a candid moment. Sharing the pictures on his X handle, the Austrian Chancellor wrote, “Welcome to Vienna. It’s a pleasure and honour to welcome you to Austria. Austria and India are friends and partners. I look forward to our political and economic discussions during your visit.”
IANS