There were a number of actors and stars of the Indian film industry who contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. There were a number of people like Sunny Deol who won. However, lady luck did not smile on the others. Here’s a list of the celebrities who lost.
Urmila Matondkar: Actress Urmila Matondkar, who worked in films as a child artist, started her political career by contesting from the Mumbai North Seat on a Congress ticket. However, she lost to sitting BJP Gopal Shetty by a margin of over 4,00,000 votes.
Shatrughan Sinha: Veteran actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha also lost from the Patna Sahib constituency in Bihar. He was the sitting MP from the constituency having won twice from the seat on a BJP ticket. Denied a ticket this time, he fought on a Congress ticket, but failed to retain the seat.
Prakash Raj: The South Indian actor has been against many of BJP’s policies. He contested as an independent candidate from Bangalore (Central). Raj finished a poor third with 28,882 votes. The winner was BJP’s PC Mohan.
Dinesh Yadav (Nirahua): For the Azamgarh constituency in UP, the BJP nominated Bhojpuri star Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirhua’ against Samajwadi Party president, Akhilesh Yadav who is also a former Chief Minister of the state. Nirahua lost by a margin of over 3,00,000 lakh votes to Akhilesh.
Jaya Prada: Jaya Prada contested from UP’s Rampur Lok Sabha seat and Samajwadi Party (SP) fielded Azam Khan. The Hindi film veteran, who had been in the SP herself, had recently joined the BJP. She was hoping to cash in on the popularity of Narendra Modi. But that did not help and she lost by a massive margin to her one-time mentor Azam Khan.
Raj Babbar: In this 17th Lok Sabha elections, Congress veteran Raj Babbar has faced shameful defeat in Fatehpur Sikri seat of Uttar Pradesh. Raj Kumar Chahar of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has defeated. Rajkumar chahar got 667147 votes (64.32%) while Raj Babbar had to be satisfied with 172082 votes (16.59%).
PNN/Agencies