Modi, Kejriwal get most votes in TIME’s ‘influential 100’ poll

While the AAP leader has received 71.5 per cent ‘yes’ votes, the BJP prime ministerial candidate has the largest percentage of ‘no’ votes than any other personality in the running.

AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal is leading the Time magazine’s readers poll of 100 Most Influential People with the highest percentage of ‘yes’ votes, pipping BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The April 23, 2014 screenshot combo shows the profile of the two leaders in the magazine's site.

A closely-watched TIME magazine poll of the 100 most-influential people in the world was flooded by around 5 million and 3 million votes respectively for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, dwarfing the votes received by others in the poll but also putting BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in the red with the largest proportion of ‘no’ votes.

At the end of poll voting by the public on Tuesday Mr. Modi had garnered 5,075,588 ‘reactions,’ of which 49.7 per cent voted ‘yes’ for including him in the top-100 list and 50.3 per cent voted ‘no.’

Mr. Kejriwal, contrarily, received the second highest number of reactions amongst all names on the poll, a total of 3,168,308, of which 71.5 per cent voted to include him in the list and 28.5 per cent voted against.

The other prominent Indian politician on the list was Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, who pulled in merely 96,070 votes, of which an overwhelming 83.5 per cent however voted to exclude him from TIME’s list.

Most other world leaders and prominent personalities received several tens of thousands of votes, including Pope Francis, Bill Gates, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, Christine Lagarde, Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin and Edward Snowden.

The surprising difference in the voting numbers for Mr. Modi and Mr. Kejriwal on the one hand and all the other contenders on the other prompted numerous discussions on social media about whether the voting had been “gamed” by supporters and critics of the two leaders.

While some pointed out that the proportion of ‘no’ votes for Mr. Modi made him “the most disliked man in the world right now,” others cautioned that “Modi lovers and Modi haters have pretty much hijacked,” the poll.

TIME publishes an annual, curated list of the 100 people whom the magazine’s editors consider to be the most influential in the world. This year’s list will be available on April 24, the magazine said, prior to which votes were invited from online readers on a long list of political leaders, entertainment-industry celebrities and sports personalities.