Several film celebrities win in Lok Sabha battle, some lose
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. 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.
Multi-lingual actress Sumalatha Ambareesh, who contested from Mandya in Karnataka, emerged victorious against Nikhil Kumaraswamy of Janata Dal-Secular.
Actor Anubhav Mohanty of BJD won against BJP's Baijayant Panda 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.
Among the others who lost was Congress' Raj Babbar, actor Dinesh Lal Yadav, popular as Nirahua, actress Jaya Prada and actor Prakash Raj, who contested as an Independent in Bangalore Central.