Nilekani most searched on Google in Karnataka

Nandan Nilekani, Congress candidate from Bangalore Lok Sabha constituency, is the most searched name on Google compared to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other leaders.

"State political veterans such as Siddaramaiah, B.S. Yeddyurappa (former chief minister) and H.D. Deve Gowda (former prime minister) lag behind a political entrant like Nilekani, as our search trends reveal," world's leading search provider Google said in a statement here Thursday.

The popularity of the Infosys co-founder surpasses that of his former colleague V. Balakrishnan, who is contesting on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket from Bangalore Central constituency in the election.

"Balakrishnan, former Infosys director, has not been able to garner the same interest as Nilekani on our search engine," the statement said.

Analysis of search trends for political leaders in the state over the past three months has revealed that people from across Karnataka were following national leaders such as BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal more than state leaders.

"The search trends show that voters in the state have cast aside interest in regional political leaders and are increasingly focusing on Modi, Rahul and Kejriwal. While search for Modi has been increasing, Rahul's visibility in search rankings has dipped marginally vis-a-vis Kejriwal since the last quarter (Oct-Dec) of 2013," the company's Indian subsidiary said.

The analysis of the trends also showed that the AAP, BJP and Congress are the most searched across the state.

"The AAP remains the most searched among national parties since January while the BJP has overtaken its arch rival Congress in the virtual world," the statement added.