The Hindu : New Delhi News : It was written in the stars

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 14, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

It was written in the stars

NEW DELHI, MAY 13. For them, the fortune was writ in the stars. The polls to the 14th Lok Sabha proved once again that filmstars are not just glamour idols, but are capable of delivering results since a majority of the film personalities who were in the fray emerged winners.

Perhaps the biggest upset of the day was created by matinee idol Govinda alias Govind Ahuja (Congress), who defeated Petroleum Minister Ram Naik (BJP) in Mumbai North Constituency by a margin of 48,271 votes.

Mumbai, which is the home to the country's largest film industry, also witnessed another major victory, when actor-turned-politician Sunil Dutt (Congress) defeated his nearest rival Sanjay Nirupam (Shiv Sena) by a margin of 47,358 votes from Mumbai North West constituency.

The he-man of yesteryears, Dharmendra or Dharam Paaji (BJP) as he is fondly known, defeated Rameshwar Dudi of the Congress by a margin of 55,836 votes.

Filmstar Raj Babbar (SP) won from Agra, deafeating his nearest BJP rival Murari Lal Mittal by more than 61,000 votes and retained his seat.

Similarly, Union Minister and actor Vinod Khanna (BJP) scored a hat-trick by winning from the Gurdaspur Parliamentary Constituency for the third time in a row. He defeated his nearest rival Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder of the Congress by a margin of over 20,000 votes. During the 1999 general elections, Mr Khanna had defeated Ms Bhinder by a close margin of 1,399 votes. The victory margin for Mr Khanna had been as high as 1,06,833 votes in the 1998 elections.

Former Rajya Sabha member and actress Jaya Prada (SP) defeated Begum Noor Bano in the Rampur constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

Congress candidate MH Ambareesh trounced Janata Dal (Secular) rival S Rame Gowda in Mandya Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 1,22,749 votes. The Congress retains the seat.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment for the glamour world -- albeit not so unexpected -- came when Senior Congress leader and spokesman Kapil Sibal in Chandni Chowk defeated his nearest rival popular TV actress Smriti Irani of the BJP by a margin of 79,417 votes in Chandni Chowk.

The beauty queen and former actress Nafisa Ali (Congress) lost to Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata South, while the actress Moushmi Chatterjee (Congress) was defeated by Mohammed Salim of the CPI (Marxist) in Kolkata North East, and maestro Bhupen Hazarika (BJP) lost to Kirap Chalia of the Congress in Guwahati.

UNI

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