3 min readUpdated: Mar 29, 2026 08:07 AM IST
The world order may have been upended, battered by another war. But it is hard to tell this looking at the list of India’s most powerful. For the 12th year, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah take the top two slots in The Indian Express list, with nine of the top 10 the same as in 2025.
That’s a testament to how power equations remain largely unchanged even ahead of another round of Assembly elections. The list also tells the story of the Opposition’s failure to check the BJP, even as the latter pushes into new territory. Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee are the only two non-NDA leaders who make the top 20. If the Congress leader’s efforts mean he has just about kept his No. 9 slot, the Trinamool Congress chief continues to stay one step ahead of the indefatigable BJP.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has been a collateral — and not unwilling — beneficiary of this high-stakes political fight, vaulting to No. 20. In 2024, his counterpart was at a much more modest No. 63. The other new entrants in the list, who rank as close, are here by virtue of the posts they now occupy — Chief Justice Surya Kant (No. 17), and BJP chief Nitin Nabin (No. 21).
US President Donald Trump’s volatility (to put it mildly) means Commerce, Finance and External Affairs Ministries have to be constantly on their toes and, hence, Piyush Goyal (No. 5 from No. 12) joins Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar in the top 10. Not surprisingly, NSA Ajit Doval, the government’s eyes and ears on all things security, climbs too, to No. 29.
With six years plus and counting as Principal Secretary to the PM, PK Mishra continues to be one of Modi’s most trusted (the PM rushed him to Ahmedabad after the Air India plane crash in June 2025) aides, and surges by 46 spots to No. 32. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sees the same rise, to No. 35, as she takes on a more hands-on role in the party, with Assam to be her litmus test after UP.
One person watching the Congress performance closely would be AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who is at No. 55 now, up by 34, as he climbs into the space vacated by the Opposition on minority issues.
In a BJP where power flows from the top, only a rare party CM such as Yogi Adityanath, Devendra Fadnavis and Himanta Biswa Sarma figures at the top; Opposition leaders fill more rungs on this count. But the CM with the biggest fall is Nitish Kumar; down 63 ranks to No. 84, after a farewell to Bihar. Nitish called it his own decision. However, surely the Hero No. 1 of Bihar, who had a glorious poll victory just months earlier, would have wished for a better ending.
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Talking about heroes and endings, the two new entrants from Bollywood in the list are Aditya Dhar and Arijit Singh — Dhar for announcing his arrival as a dhurandhar of “patriotism” packaged slickly; Arijit for “exiting” while the music still sang.
