If people are given a choice between choosing between liking and hating Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a Time 100 poll which claims to choose to be the list of people shaping the world, seems to suggest that the BJP stalwart has more detractors than fans.
After a whopping five lakh people voted for him in the poll (which is now closed so you can breathe easy) Modi ended up with more people voting against him (2,66,684) than those who voted for him (2,56,792).
Modi beat all Indian competitors in the Time 100 poll. AFP
And while he may have been beaten by internet hacking group Anonymous and Erik Martin (the General Manager of Reddit) his supporters have already demanded a recount, alleging that the hackers had rigged the polls.
Mashable reported that a Modi supporter, who did not identify himself, had complained that the poll was rigged by the hacker group Anonymous which had accumulated around 14,000 votes per hour. The hackers have however denied the report.
Strangely enough Modi’s opponents in Gujarat had accused his supporters of rigging the polls themselves and sending out mass emails seeking votes.
This isn’t Modi’s first online loss. Last year, nominated for the Mashable award for ‘Must-Follow Politician on Social Media’, Modi seemed to be boxing out of his league when he took on bigger politicians like Barack Obama, who finally walked away with the title.
However, from websites to cheesy videos his supporters tried it all to project him as the pride of the nation and really can’t blame their loss on a lack of trying.
Efforts were no less this time with Modi’s supporters taking to Facebook and Twitter to promote his cause. And now after accusations of rigging, blogs are abuzz with calls to declare the poll null and hold it again.
The only person who seemed to have come close to dividing online opinion seems to be the rather unlikely Vidya Balan. With 16,982 voting for the Bollywood star and 14,784 against her Balan cannot be blamed for wondering about what she did to polarise opinion to this degree.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who did not allow the Gujarat Chief Minister to take part in polling campaigns in Bihar, was his closest political competitor in the polls getting 13,400 votes as compared to 3,865 against him.
If the poll is an indicator of anything Modi has outstripped his Indian competitiors with nearest competitor Anna Hazare receiving only 23,977 votes. However, less people voted against him (3,340).
And if the poll is any indicator of Sachin Tendulkar’s popularity, he’s behind Anna Hazare with 20,962 voting for him and 5,672 against him.
