In the political ‘dangal’ of the Lok Sabha elections 2019, a slew of film celebrities including Hema Malini, Sunny Deol, Kirron Kher, Manoj Tiwari, Anubhav Mohanty, Mimi Chakraborty and Nushrat Jahan emerged victorious.
Veteran actress Hema Malini, Bollywood’s evergreen ‘Dreamgirl’, won from Mathura by 293,471 votes, defeating Narendra Singh of Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Bollywood’s action star Sunny Deol, famous for his ‘Dhai kilo ka haath’ dialogue, displayed the weight of his stardom in Gurdaspur in Punjab as he won with 82,459 votes against Sunil Jakhar (Congress).
Actress Kirron Kher, the BJP candidate in Chandigarh, defeated Pawan Kumar Bansal (Congress).
In West Bengal, Trinamool Congress candidates Mimi Chakraborty and Nushrat Jahan emerged big winners.
Mimi overcame Anupam Hazra (BJP) in Jadavpur by 295,239 votes while Nushrat defeated BJP’s Sayantan Basu in Basirhat by 350,369 votes.
Actor Deepak Adhikari, also from the Trinamool, worsted Bharati Ghosh (BJP) in Ghatal by 107,973 votes.
In Delhi, BJP’s Hans Raj Hans and Manoj Tiwari won easily.
Popular singer Hans who fought from North West Delhi routed Gugan Singh of AAP by 553,897 votes while actor Manoj Tiwari triumphed over former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit (Congress) in North East Delhi by 366,102 votes.
The Bhojpuri star power was also in play as Ravi Kishan defeated Ram Bhual Nishad of Samajwadi Party in Gorakhpur. He won by 301,664 votes.
Multi-lingual actress Sumalatha Ambareesh, who contested from Mandya in Karnataka, emerged victorious against Nikhil Kumaraswamy of Janata Dal-Secular by 125,876 votes.
Actor Anubhav Mohanty of BJD won against BJP’s Baijayant Panda by 152,584 votes in Kendrapara, Odisha.
In Maharashtra’s Shirur constituency, actor Amol Ramsing Kolhe of NCP won against Shivaji Adhalrao Dattatrey (Shiv Sena) by 58,483 votes.
Not lucky was Urmila Matondkar, a fresh entrant into politics who as the Congress candidate in Mumbai North lost to BJP’s Gopal Shetty by 465,247 votes.
Actress Moon Moon Sen of Trinamool lost to singer Babul Supriyo of BJP in Asansol by 197,637 votes.
The Sinha couple — Shatrughan and wife Poonam — too tasted defeat.
Shatrughan, who shifted allegiance from the BJP to Congress, lost to BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna Sahib by 284,657 votes. His actress wife Poonam Sinha, who represented Samajwadi Party, fell short of 347,302 votes and lost to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Lucknow.
Among the others who lost was Congress’ Raj Babbar, who was trumped by Rajkumar Chahar of BJP in Fatehpur Sikri by 495,065 votes.
Actor Dinesh Lal Yadav, popular as Nirahua, lost as a BJP candidate to SP leader and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav by 259,874 votes in Azamgarh.
Actress Jaya Prada of BJP lost to Azam Khan of SP in Rampur by 109,997 votes.
Actor Prakash Raj, who contested as an independent in Bangalore Central, lost too.
