Is it TIME (poll) for Modi baiters to celebrate?

In less than a month after he appeared on the cover of the Asia edition of the US magazine, Time, chief minister Narendra Modi's detractors have got the better of him in the magazine's poll for the 100 most influential people.

Till Thursday, Modi was leading the race and was at number 1 position with more than 80% 'Yes' and only 20% 'No' votes.
But by the time voting in the online poll ended on April 6, he had been pushed to the third rank, after Anonymous (a lose-knit network of hackers) and Erik Martin, general manager of social networking website, Reddit.

Though Time's editors will announce the results only on April 17, by the time voting ended on April 6, Modi had secured 2,56,792 'Yes' votes which were countered by 2,66,684 'Noes'.

It is interesting that many activist groups who are opposed to Modi mainly because of his alleged complicity in the communal riots of 2002, had become active and run an email campaign against him.

They had requested internet users to 'save the future of India' by voting 'No' to Modi's candidature in Time magazine's poll for the 100 most influential persons.

The same group of activists has now sent emails thanking likeminded people for voting against Modi. The activists have alleged that Gujarat government's publicity machine had become active for the Time magazine's poll and the votes that the chief minister had got were sarkari votes.

Incidentally, the Gujarat chief minister has got the maximum votes if the 'ayes' and 'noes' are added. The total number of votes polled by him comes to 5,23,476. Anonymous, which is number 1 in the list, has polled 4,02,396 votes (3,95,793 'Yes' and 27,303 'No') followed by Eric Martin with 3,13,643 votes (26,4193 'Yes' and 49,450 'No').

It has been suggested by Modi supporters that the chief minister's detractors are adding to his popularity by protesting against him. They say that Modi has created such a situation that his supporters 'like' him while his opponents 'hate' him but none can ignore him.

Modi acolytes don't fail to add that probably this is what Modi has always wanted; he has succeeded in influencing his supporters as well as his opponents.

Modi fans are now saying, tongue in cheek, that the chief minister's detractors should pray that Time's editors don't take the total votes polled by a candidate into consideration while deciding the winner. 

The other Indians in the list are Modi's rival in the NDA for the prime minister's post, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar who polled 13,400 'Yes' and 3865 'No' votes; Bollywood beauty Vidya Balan; Sachin Tendulkar and anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare.

It is significant that while Modi and Nitish Kumar figure in the magazine's poll for the most influential person, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi, were not even considered by voters.