Prominent politicians swallowed by the Saffron wave

A lot of prominent politicians who took on the NDA were on the losing side on May 23. We look at some of them.

Kanhaiya Kumar

A JNU student turned accidental politician, he's a well-known face of the Communist Party of India who lost to BJP veteran Giriraj Singh. They contested from Begusarai Constituency in Bihar. He got 22.03% of the vote share as against Giriraj Singh's 56.48%.

Atishi Marlena

A Political Affairs Committee member of the Aam Aadmi Party, Marlena contesting in East Delhi lost to Gautam Gambhir, the former cricketer turned politician. Gambhir bagged 55.35% of the vote share, while Atishi managed only 17.44%.

Prakash Raj

The actor turned politician lost to P. C. Mohan in Bangalore Central. Mohan got 50.35% of the vote share and Raj was almost forgotten with 2.41% vote share.

Nikhil Kumaraswamy

Son of Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and grandson of former Indian Prime Minister H D Devegowda, Kumaraswamy contested from Mandya. He was no match for independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh, a former actress and the widow of Kannada actor-politician Ambareesh. Sumalatha got 51.02% of the vote share and Nikhil lost by 10 %.

H. D. Devegowda

Former Prime Minister and JD(S) Supremo H D Devegowda lost to G. S. Basavaraj of the BJP.
In the last two elections, Devegowda had contested from the Hassan Constituency and won. This time, he contested from Tumkur and lost. Devegowda received 46.82% of the vote share and lost a close race by only 1%.

Digvijay Singh

Digvijay Singh, General Secretary of the Indian National Congress and former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, lost to Pragya Singh Thakur in the Bhopal Constituency. Pragya Thakur aka Sadhvi Pragya won 61.54% of the vote share, while Singh managed only 35.63%.

Shatrughan Sinha

Actor turned politician and former Member of Parliament Shatrughan Sinha lost to Ravi Shankar Prasad for the Patna Sahib Constituency. Prasad won with 61.85% of votes, which was almost double Sinha's total of 32.87%. Sinha was previously an MP for the BJP but he moved to the Congress this year.

Rahul Gandhi

Congress President Rahul Gandhi won from Wayanad but lost the family bastion of Amethi to Smriti Irani of the BJP. Rahul managed 43.86% of votes as against Irani's total of 49.71%.

Moon Moon Sen

The former actress and former MP from the All Indian Trinamool Congress contested from Asansol against Babul Supriyo. Sen got 35.15% of the vote share while the BJP's Supriyo was triumphant with 51.16%.

Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia

Hailing from the royal Scindia family who once ruled Gwalior, the Congress' Jyotiraditya has been in Parliament from the Guna Constituency since 2002, following his father Madhavrao Scindia's death. Jyotiraditya was defeated by KP Yadav of the BJP who bagged 52.11% of votes. Jyotiraditya's final tally was 41.45%.