Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is currently ahead of actor Aamir Khan, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the Indian Army and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team in the ‘Popular Choice’ category of the Indian of The Year — 2014 awards, with 18 per cent more votes.

The Popular Choice category was introduced in the 19th edition of the Indian Of The Year awards. Mr Rao, who is currently ranked second in the race, was chosen from 35 nominees across six categories based on votes received from the public through the channel’s Facebook page.

Ironically, Aamir with a huge fan following and 114,175 “likes” on Facebook, and Microsoft CEO Mr Na-della are currently beh-ind Mr Rao, which came as a surprise to the channel also.

The fifth position is presently occupied by Mr Nadella, fourth by the Indian Army and the National Response Force for their stellar work in last year’s Srinagar floods. In third position is Aamir. Mr Rao at No. 2 has 18 per cent more votes than Aamir.

The fact that Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao ranking above actor Aamir Khan came as a suprise to the channel CNN-IBN, who is conducting The Indian of the Year awards. The current leader of the table is IPS officer P. Vijayan (1999 batch) who is Deputy Inspector General of Police (intelligence) of Kerala.

He has been district police chief of several districts and holds the distinction of being the first to have served as Commissioner of Police in all four Commissionerates in the state, viz. Thiruvananthapuram (4), Kozhikode, Thrissur and Kochi. The CNN-IBN Indian of the Year is presented annually to various Indians for their work in their respective fields. The awards are presented in various categories of Politics, Sports, Business, Entertainment, Public Service and Global Indian.