Is it possible to pick just 70 people and say that they were the most influential politicians in the seven decades of our Independence?
Probably not. But I've given it a shot anyway, drawing up a list ( in order of date of birth) that I regard as fair and comprehensive but which others may well find contentious or controversial. But then, one man's hero is often another man's nonentity.
Not that this list is packed only with heroes. My criteria were simple: restrict the list to politicians who played a major role in the post Independence period ( so that ruled out Gandhi ji, Neta ji and many others) and then access their influence and legacies. So, there are some villains here, people who did damage to India but who belong on this list because that damage was so great that we still suffer its consequences.
There are some surprising omissions. Many big name politicians from the last two decades are not listed because I do not believe they left any legacy or changed India in any significant sense. And there is one entry that breaks my own rules. Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam was not really a politician. But he changed our view of the presidency so radically that I couldn't possibly have left him out.
As for the rest, well, all such lists are subjective. So, go ahead and disagree!
1- SardarPatel
2- Rajagopalachari
3- Periyar
4- BC Roy
5- Jawaharlal Nehru
6- Tristao de Braganza
7- Dr. Ambedkar
8- Morar ji Desai
9- VK Krishna Menon
10- DP Mishra
11- Potti Sreeramulu
12- Shyama Prasad Mukharji
13- Paratap Singh Kairon
14- Charan Singh
15- Jayprakash Narayan
16-K Kamaraj
17- Lal Bahadur Shastri
18- Sheikh Abdullah
19- MS Golwalkar
20- Jagjivan Ram
21- Frank Anthony
22- EMS Namboodiripad
23- Annadurai
24- Ram Manohar Lohia
25- YB Chavan
26- Jyoti Basu
27- Devi Lal
28- Devraj URS
29- Biju Patnaik
30- Mohanlal Sukhadia
31- MG Ramchandran
32- Vijayaraje Scindia
33- Indira Gandhi
34- Siddhartha Shankar Roy
35- Narasimha Rao
36- NT Rama Rao
37- Karpoori Thakur
38- SR Bommai
39- Atal Bihari Vajpayee
40- ND Tiwari
41- Bal Thackeray
42- Laldenga
43- LK Advani
44- George Fernandes
45- Arjun Singh
46- Bhajan Lal
47- VP Singh
48- APJ Abdul Kalam
49- Manmohan Singh
50- Subash Ghising
51- Mufti Mohammed Sayeed
52- Mulayam Singh yadav
53- Sharad Pawar
54- Shibu Soren
55- Rajiv Gandhi
56- Sanjay Gandhi
57- Sonia Gandhi
58- PA Sangma
59- J Jayalalithaa
60- Lalu Prasad
61- Manik Sarkar
62- Chandrababu Naidu
63- Narendra Modi
64- Arif Mohammed Khan
65- Prafulla Mahanta
66- K Chandrashekhar Rao
67- Mamata Banerjee
68- Mayawati
69- Amit shah
70- Arvind Kejriwal
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