STAR WAR… IS OVER

Manpriya Singh 

For good or worse, but the fact is that one side is in full bloom, while the other one’s been dealt a rough hand; pun totally unintended! There’s nothing better than sitting back and checking on the report card, especially if it happens to be that of the other people. In this case, all the contestants with a celluloid connect. Are they only good for flocking the audience to theatres or even the voters to ballots?  Who won, who lost and by how much? Let’s find out.   

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Hand grows stronger
Sunny Deol 
Party: BJP  
Constituency: Gurdaspur 

What can we say when a celluloid favourite is at play? Or was it the fear of dhai kilo ka haath that made everybody prefer it over the regular Congress hand? Guess what, it worked because, last checked, he was leading his rival, senior congress heavyweight Sunil Jakhar, by a margin of well over 80,000 votes. ‘Gurdaspur people added weight to my dhaai kilo ka haath, was his predictable winning speech. 

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On A song
Hans Raj Hans
Party: BJP 
Constituency: North West Delhi   

From SAD to Congress to BJP, Hans Raj Hans’ political CV runs quite long. After losing once and shifting a few parties, he was this time fielded from Delhi’s North West Constituency as a BJP candidate. Guess what? He won and by a record margin; having clocked in 60 per cent of the total number of votes polled.  The next in line was Gugan Singh Ranga of AAP, a distant second. 

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Grand fight
Mimi Chakraborty 
Party: TMC
Constituency: Jadavpur  

When Tollywood star Mimi Chakraborty was fielded against BJP’s Anupam Hazra, memes, jokes and trolls followed. However, the counting of votes has proven otherwise. As the TMC candidate was head and shoulders above her rival.  Almost 46 per cent of votes polled have been in her favour. 

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Better nation
Nusrat Jahan 
Party: Trinamool Congress 
Constituency: Basirhat Lok Sabha   

During campaigning, Bengali actress Nusrat Jahan promised she would work towards a better India. Now having defeated her rival, BJP’s Sayantan Basu by roughly over 2 lakh votes, she better deliver a better India, or better Bengal at least. And she has five years to do that.  

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Talking point
Bhagwant Mann
Party: Aam Aadmi Party 
Constituency: Sangrur in Punjab  

What happens when you ask the maximum questions in Parliament and participate in majority of debates? You make your presence felt and you win. And that’s what happened with Bhagwant Mann, who was fielded against Simranjit Singh Mann (SAD) and Congress’ Kewal Singh Dhillon. The comedian clocked in 37.5 per cent of the total votes polled. We guess, the yellow turban helped too!  

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High five
Hema Malini
Party: BJP
Constituency: Mathura Lok Sabha   

Hema Malini wins in Mathura. Once again. Her close rival Kunwar Narendra Singh of RLD trailed behind by a vote count of close to 2 lakhs. Though last election she defeated her rival from RLD Jayant Chaudhary by a margin of over 3 lakh votes. This time, hubby Dharmendra campaigned in Mathura and she said she worked really hard. 

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Return mode
Kirron Kher
Party: BJP 
Constituency: Chandigarh 

It was a guessing game from the word go between the sitting MP Kirron Kher and her closest rival Pawan Kumar Bansal . Well, it turned out it was her once again in a neck-to-neck battle between the two by a margin of just a few thousands.  

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Right act
Ravi Kishan 
Party: BJP  
Constituency: Gorakhpur

Bhojpuri actor. BJP’s hero.  Very publicly, the actor offered prayers at a temple a few hours ahead of the counting of votes. It must have worked since he was leading by a margin of more than 2, 80,000 votes, with his rival, Samajwadi Party candidate Rambhual Nishad.

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Act in vain
Urmila Matondkar 
Party: Indian National Congress 
Constituency: Mumbai North Lok Sabha 

“Honesty is my best USP,” she said during the campaigns and seemed thick into the election fever. Pleasing each and every community, from playing cricket with boys on the roads to meeting auto-rickshaw drivers’ community. All that did not work, it seems as the sitting BJP MP Gopal  Shetty, her competitor, defeated her by a discouraging margin and securing almost over 70 per cent of the total votes polled.  

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Broken whistle
Prakash Raj
Party: Independent candidate
Constituency: Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha   

His election symbol, Whistle, as he said means, “It’s time to blow the whistle.”  We wish he’d been given a chance to do that. In the meanwhile, the actor-turned-politician has accepted defeat gracefully and quite bluntly, by saying, how, the results are, “a solid slap on my face.”  He only secured two per cent of the total votes polled. 

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Clear loss
Jaya Prada 
Party: BJP
Constituency: Rampur  

She lost.  Or let’s put it this way, that Mohammad Azam Khan of Samajwadi Party won against her by a margin of 1,40,000 votes. After inflammatory speeches, acrimonious exchanges between the two, the results were not even tied. They were just clear. 

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Shotgun misfires
Shatrughan Sinha 
Party: Congress 
Constituency: Patna Sahib, Bihar  

Fielded from Patna Sahib again, save for the fact that this time he was in the fray as a Congress candidate and contesting against BJP competitor Ravi Shankar Prasad. Despite belonging to his former party, he disapproved of certain ideologies and decisions, a fact he made known through his twitter handles. His daughter supported his decision, but we guess the mandate did not turn out in favour as he trailed by over one lakh votes. 

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Once again
Babul Supriyo (BJP)  Vs Moon Moon Sen (Trinamool Congress) 
Constituency: Asansol  

When you say, you are unaware of the violence in your constituency because you got your bed tea late… you are kind of nailing your own coffin.  Which is probably why Moon Moon Sen has been the only celebrity candidate trailing in West Bengal! On the other hand, the singer and BJP’s Minister of State for Heavy Industries Babul Supriyo last time won by a margin of over 60,000 votes.  This time, he won by close to a lakh votes against Ms Moon Moon Sen. 

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