Vinesh Phogat was the most-searched personality on Google India in 2024. See full list here

Phogat, fellow Olympians Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia spearheaded last year’s agitation by wrestlers against the-then Wrestling Federation of India boss Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

At the Paris Olympics this year, she qualified for the final, but was disqualified ahead of the bout on being found overweight. Her appeal was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

After returning to India, Vinesh joined the Congress ahead of the elections in her native state Haryana. Though the party lost to the ruling BJP, she won the Julana seat.

No. 2 was Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who rejoined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in January. With 12 seats, Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) is a crucial ally of the BJP, which lost its majority in Lok Sabha for the first time since 2014.

Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) head Chirag Paswan, also a BJP ally, came third. A former actor, Paswan is now a minister in the BJP-led central government.

India allrounder Hardik Pandya, who was booed throughout the Indian Premier League for “snatching” the Mumbai Indians’ captaincy from Rohit Sharma, was fourth. Pandya bowled the final over of India’s win against South Africa in the final of the WorldT20 in June.

“Power Star” Pawan Kalyan rounded off the top five. The Janasena Party boss serves as the deputy chief minister of the NDA government in Andhra Pradesh.

Positions 5-10 were held by Shashank Singh (cricketer), Poonam Pandey (model), Radhika Merchant (business leader), Abhishek Sharma (cricketer) and Lakshya Sen (Badminton player) in that order.