Might Modi be the TIME cover face for 2016?

Narendra Modi won the TIME reader’s poll for their 2016 Person of the Year title for the second time, beating the likes of Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Vladimir Putin, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, etc. The poll which ran on the magazine’s site closed on midnight on December 5.

The final decision for the ‘most influential person-poll’ conducted by the magazine, since 1927, is taken by the editors. Therefore despite the reader’s choice, it will be the TIME’s call in the end. 

In 2014, Modi didn’t make it to the TIME’s cover page despite a 11 per cent higher approval rating as compared to the ‘The Ebola Fighters’, a  group of medical-relief workers who were declared as that year’s winners. 

Modi is the only Indian on the “Person who has most influenced the news and our world in the past year, for good or ill” list. The magazine’s website states he has 18 per cent of the total votes cast this year.

With 2016 being a US election year, The Sun, a UK daily reported a trend in the annual poll results put out by the magazine. Statistically president-elects often make the TIME’s cover every election year. This seems contradictory to the TIME’s claim which states that ‘not all influence is institutional’.