The Bharatiya Janata Party’s spectacular victory in the Lok Sabha elections has highlighted one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biggest targets against the Congress. Several ‘naamdaars’ or dynasts from the Congress party lost this election, including party president Rahul Gandhi. The results of the much-awaited Lok Sabha elections are out and the BJP is all set form the government at the Centre once again. This would be the first time since 1974 when the same Prime Minister has been given a clear-cut mandate for a second consecutive term.
The results also came as a huge surprise for many political heavyweights and their family members who were confident about their candidature. The list includes names of former CM and sons of many prominent leaders including CMs and Prime Minister.
The first in the list to lose his election was late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s son Rahul Gandhi. Rahul lost Congress’s traditional seat Amethi to BJP’s Smriti Irani by a margin of 30,000 votes. The battle in Amethi was one of the most keenly watched contests in the country, thanks to Smriti Irani’s good show in 2014 against Rahul and her rising popularity among the locals. The seat was considered as he the Congress’ bastion and it was represented by Rajiv Gandhi between 1981 and 1991 and his wife Sonia Gandhi between 1994 and 2004. In 2004, Rahul Gandhi successfully contested elections from here and then went on to win in 209 and 2014. The Congress losing its bastion to BJP has come as a huge embarrassment for the party because Rahul’s sister Priyanka Gandhi herself was leading the campaign in Amethi and was confident of her brother’s win.
The second heavyweight in the list was Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot. Vaibhav lost elections from Jodhpur Lok Sabha seat to BJP leader and outgoing Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat by a huge margin of over 2.75 lakh votes. Ashok Gehlot, who became the Chief Minister of Rajasthan for the third time in December 2018, has himself represented Jodhpur seat in Lok Sabha for five times from 1980 to 1999.
Jyotiradityta Scindia, who is the son of late Congress leader and Union minister Madhavrao Scindia, also lost his Guna seat to BJP leader Krishna Pal Singh by a margin of 1.50 lakh votes. Guna is considered as the family bastion of Scindia. Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia represented the seat in the Lok Sabha as a BJP MP between 1989 and 1999. Her son Madhavrao Scindia followed the political tradition and won the elections in 2000 from here but on a Congress ticket and represented the seat till his death in September 2001. In the by-polls, his son Jyotiraditya Scindia won from here and went on to win the seat in 2004, 2009 and 2014. In 2014, the 48-year-old challenged the Modi wave and defeated BJP’s Jaibhansingh Pawaiya by over 1.20 lakh votes.
Another son of a prominent Congress leader who lost the elections is Murli Deora’s son Milind Deora from Mumbai South. Milind, who was made the Mumbai Congress chief just ahead of the elections, lost the seat to BJP’s Arvind Ganpat Sawant. Milind had previously represented the Mumbai South twice between 2004 and 2014. His father Murli Deora had represented seat four times. He was a businessman and a Congress politician. He had also served as the Mayor of Mumbai and as a Minister of Cabinet rank in UPA-II government headed by Manmohan Singh.
In Karnataka’s Mandya, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy lost to independent candidate Sumalatha by 67,000 votes. Sumalatha is the wife of three-time Congress MP and film star Ambareesh who died last year. The BJP had backed her candidature from here. Another setback came to Ajit Pawar’s son Partha who lost from from Maval in Maharashta to Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Barne by 2,15,913 votes.