New Delhi: Riding the Modi wave, a record number of Union Ministers marched to Lok Sabha, although former bureaucrats and senior cabinet ministers Hardeep Puri and KJ Alphons failed to make it.
Textile Minister Smriti Irani emerged as a giant-killer against Congress president Rahul Gandhi who conceded defeat from Amethi in one of the most keenly watched contests in the country. The results are yet to be announced, but Irani is leading by over 50,000 votes.
Giriraj Singh, who was up against CPI(ML) candidate Kanhaiya Kumar defeated the former JNU students union president by a margin of 4,22,217 votes in Begusarai constituency.
Radha Mohan Singh fielded from Purvi Champaran was ahead of his rival Aakash Singh by a margin of nearly two lakh votes. In Arrah, RK Singh defeated his nearest rival Raju Yadav of CPI(ML) by a margin of 147285 votes.
Firebrand leader and Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey too sailed through against RJD’s Jagadanand Singh, winning the Buxar seat by 1,17609 votes.
Cabinet Minister KJ Alphons faced a humiliating defeat in Kerala. He was in third place behind Congress’ Hibi Eden and CPI(M) candidate P Rajeev on the Ernakulam seat. Eden won by a margin of 1,69153 votes.
His colleague and Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri lost in Amritsar by a margin of over 99,626 votes against Congress’s Gurjeet Singh Aujala.
Another big loss of the BJP was Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha who lost by 1,19392 votes against BSP’s Afzal Ansari on Ghazipur seat.
The big winners included Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari. Singh defeated Samajwadi Party candidate and Shatrughna Sinha’s wife Poonam Sinha in Lucknow by 3,47302 votes. Gadkari won from Nagpur by a margin of around 2.13 lakh votes. He was up against Congress candidate Nana Patole.
Maneka Gandhi, who switched to Sultanpur(UP) seat, defeated BSP’s Chandra Bhadra Singh by a margin of over 14,000 votes. In West Bengal SS Ahluwalia won the Burdwan – Durgapur seat defeating TMC’s Mamtaz Sanghamita by a narrow margin of 2,439 votes.
BJP’s biggest winners included VK Singh who defeted his rival from SP Suresh Bansal by a margin of 50,1500 in Ghaziabad constituency.
In the Jaipur (Rural) seat it was a contest between two Olympians. However, minister Rajyavardhan Rathor defeated Krishna Poonia of Congress by 3,93,171 votes.
Union Minister Mahesh Sharma won in Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida) seat by 3.3 lakh votes, against BSP’s Satyapal. In Bareilly, Santosh Gangwar sailed through.
Other ministers of Modi government including Jual Oram (Sundargarh), Sadanand Gowda (North Bangalore), Shripad Yesso Naik (North Goa), Jitendra Singh (Udhampur), Rao Inderjeet Singh (Gurgaon) and Narendra Singh Tomar (Morena) were on the victory march.
PTI