Most Powerful Indians in 2012

19. Mulayam Singh Yadav, 72, President, Samajwadi Party:

Mulayam Singh is new on the list too. He presently heads the third-largest political party in the Lok Sabha and has asserted his agitational brand of politics by marshalling his flock to the well of the House to corner the government on important issues such as price rise and FDI in retail. As winner of the politics of social justice, he closed the position with other backward-class politicians in the Lok Sabha last year to force the government to agree to a caste census.

20. Akhilesh Yadav, 38, UP state chief of Samajwadi Party:

Akhilesh is new on the list this year. He has become the man to watch in Uttar Pradesh with his no-nonsense manner and positive approach. He got the party to announce many of its candidates almost a year ahead of the polls. While all eyes were on Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh quietly made an early start with the Samajwadi Kranti Rath tour across the state last year. He left none in doubt over who calls the shots when he turned down controversial MLA DP Yadav's request to join the party. And when senior leader Mohan Singh dissented, he was removed from the position of party national spokesman.

The others on the list include Jayalalitha, Azim Premji, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Digvijay Singh, Arvind Kejriwal, Sunil Mittal, Cyrus Mistry, Nandan Nilkeni, Mayawati, SY Quereshi, Sheila Dikshit, Saman Khurshid, Anil Ambani, Amir Khan, MS Dhoni, Salman Khan, Chanda Kochhar, Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, AR Rahman and many more.