Arvind Kejriwal wins Time 100 readers' poll, beats Narendra Modi

NEW YORK: Aam Aadmi Party founder Arvind Kejriwal has won Time magazine's readers' poll of most influential people in the world, beating heavyweights including BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, a survey that turned out to be a "competition" between the two.

Kejriwal, 45, took the first place in the readers' poll for the '2014 TIME 100', the annual list of people who influenced the world this past year for better or worse.

He received a total of 261,114 "yes" votes from readers, followed by Modi, 63, who got 164,572 votes in his favour.

Congress party vice president Rahul Gandhi, 43, got 96,070 votes of which 16.5 per cent said he should be included in the list while 83.5 per cent said no.

Time said celebrities like Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Rihanna ranked high as reader favorites, but the poll turned into a "competition between two men competing in India's ongoing elections".

"Kejriwal, a candidate for a parliamentary seat, came to prominence as the leader of an anti-corruption movement in India," Time said.

The publication said there were attempts to "inflate" the voting numbers, but only legitimate votes were tabulated for the final results.

Readers voted on who should and should not be included in the TIME 100 list.

Modi received 166,260 "no" votes from readers who did not want him to be included in the annual Time list.

More than 3.2 million votes were cast in the poll and the poll's winner was decided by raw number of "yes" votes.

Rounding out the top ten finishers after Kejriwal and Modi were singer Katy Perry, singer Justin Bieber, actor Laverne Cox, actor Benedict Cumberbatch, singer Beyonce, actor Jared Leto, actor Lupita Nyong'o, singer Lady Gaga and music duo Daft Punk.