A girl ties rakhi on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. (PTI)

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday followed 55 women on Twitter , including sports and media personalities, to mark Raksha Bandhan .

These women include professional badminton doubles player Ashwini Ponnappa , tennis players Sania Mirza and Karman Kaur Thandi, athlete P T Usha, former Miss India and child rights activist Swaroop, and journalists Romana Isar Khan, Sweta Singh, Padmaja Joshi, Sheela Bhatt and Shalini Singh.

Others followed by the Prime Minister on the micro-blogging platform include actor Koena Mitra, weightlifter Karnam Malleswari, photo journalist Renuka Puri and some BJP members and state government ministers.

Some of those followed by Modi, thanked him and wished him on Raksha Bandhan.

Sources in the government said the Prime Minister followed them on Twitter to mark the festival.

The Prime Minister follows 2,000 people on his personal Twitter handle @narendramodi and is followed by 43.7 million people.

His official Twitter handle @PMOIndia follows 438 people, including world leaders. The official account is followed by 26.9 million people.

