The popularity of Paridhi dwarfs that of Rajat. That was proven by the Ormax ratings which she headed for more than a year, and where Rajat's Akbar made only occasional presence. Maybe, it was the mangling of Akbar's character or whatever.
I don't think there is any other Indian TV actress that has the kind of international popularity for her character Jodha, than Paridhi. I mean who cares about the lead of Mohabattein or Divya Bhaati in Indonesia or Vietnam but Paridhi's Jodha is a huge hit. Even in India, most people would be hard pressed to point out a TV actress because all saas bahu shows are more or less the same unless the show is exceptionally popular, that has not been the case in recent years.
But everyone knows who Jodha is. So, we may have our personal opinions of the acting capabilities of Paridhi but no one can deny her popularity. After all the ZEE folks are not idiots to use her posters for publicity of their awards show as recently as a month back and before that last year Paridhi was engaged in election campaigning for a BJP candidate with close ties to ZEE.