Here’s the list of most powerful Indians : Narendra Modi on top position

Here’s the list of most powerful Indians : Narendra Modi on top position

Indian Express releases the list of most powerful Indians.Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah’s prime positions in the power list of 2017-2018 — now No. 1 and No. 2 for two years running.

What the election shake-ups have done though is give a new lease of life to the Opposition, leaving it looking for a new anchor to rally around. Consequently, three such faces, Sonia Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati, find themselves in the top 10 — the BSP chief zooming all the way up to No. 9 from No. 50 on the strength of the surprise she pulled off in the Uttar Pradesh bypolls. The way Mayawati goes could decide the fate of the 2019 results, as the Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav (No. 14 from No. 64) would happily vouch.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley maintains his position in a year that saw the rolling out of the Goods & Services Tax, the No. 6 to No.7 change telling as much a story about the “revolutionary tax” that wasn’t much of a “revolution”.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has had a busy year, with the Doklam standoff and the rollercoaster ties with Pakistan. However, not much of the blame was seen as resting on her shoulders, as reflected in her steadfast, if lower, position on the list. The Chief Minister who faced the most heat, Mehbooba Mufti, however, climbs up on account of it.

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On the other end though, Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal drops out, as the BJP’s Northeast campaign is seen to bear one increasingly dominant face: Himanta Biswa Sarma, who climbs up 10 places. Nirmala Sitharaman enters on the strength of her surprise selection as Defence Minister, but Ram Nath Kovind finds no place in his first year as President, in a reflection of the diminishing role of his post in the face of the BJP’s brute majority.

Arvind Kejriwal has a great fall, from No. 33 to No. 73, buffeted by successive setbacks and his abject apologies. But as his victory in the Delhi High Court over the disqualification of 20 MLAs showed, the Delhi Chief Minister is not ready to be written off yet. However, the marginalisation of the Aam Aadmi Party means there is space for only one in this list, and Manish Sisodia has been edged out.

Almost as great a fall has been that of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who drops from No. 13 to No. 49. The capitulation of the JD(U) to the BJP is near total and the ‘P’ on the mind of the man once seen as possible PM now is ‘Prohibition’.

List of top 20 most powerful Indians in 2018

1: Narendra Modi, 67
Prime Minister of India

2: Amit Shah, 53
BJP President

3: Dipak Misra, 64
Chief Justice of India

4: Mohan Bhagwat, 67
RSS sarsanghchalak

5: Sonia Gandhi, 71
UPA chairperson

6: Mamata Banerjee, 63
West Bengal Chief Minister

7: Rajnath Singh, 66
Union Home Minister

8: Arun Jaitley, 65
Union Finance Minister

9: Yogi Adityanath, 45
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister

10: Mukesh Ambani, 60
Chairman, Reliance Industries

11: Rahul Gandhi, 47
Congress President

12: Nitin Gadkari, 60
Minister for Road Transport, Highways

13: Shivraj Singh Chouhan, 59
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister

14: Mayawati, 62
Bahujan Samaj Party Chief

15: Akhilesh Yadav, 44
Samajwadi Party Chief

16: Devendra Fadnavis, 47
Maharashtra Chief Minister

17: Lalu Prasad, RJD president, 70

18 Tejashwi Prasad, Leader Of Opposition, Bihar Assembly, 28

19: Siddaramaiah, 69
Karnataka Chief Minister

20: Virat Kohli, 29
Captain, Indian cricket team