The results of the 18th Lok Sabha elections were declared by the Election Commission of India on Tuesday. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA is set to form the government for the third time in a row as the ruling alliance won 293 seats and the required tally for the majority is 272. However, it did not come as a fortune for some biggies as they received shocking defeat.
The biggest shocker came from Amethi - the Gandhi family bastion where Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was defeated by BJP leader Smriti Irani in the Lok Sabha election 2019. However, in 2024, the constituency saw a turnaround. The sitting MP Irani was lost to Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma. Now, he became a giant slayer by defeating Union Minister Irani by a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes. Interestingly, Irani was also called a giant killer when she outsmarted Gandhi.
According to Election Commission data, while Sharma got 5,39,228 votes, Irani managed to get 3,72,032 votes.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury loses to Yusuf Pathan
In West Bengal's Baharampur seat, first-time contender and former cricketer Yusuf Pathan, contested on Trinammol Congress (TMC) ticket, defeated senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in his Baharampur bastion. The former India cricketer beat the Congress' Leader in the 17th Lok Sabha and six-time MP by 85,022 votes.
Ajay Kumar Teni defeated in Kheri
Union Minister and two-time MP from Kheri, Uttar Pradesh, Ajay Kumar Teni, lost to Samajwadi Party's (SP) Utkarsh Verma Madhur by 34,329 votes.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar concedes defeat
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar conceded defeat to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in a keenly-watched poll battle. “We have come very close and have set a record margin and vote share. It is disappointing that I couldn’t win today, but I fought a clean campaign,” Chandrasekhar told media. He lost by a little over 16,000 votes.
Maneka Gandhi suffers defeat
Another big upset in the state was the defeat of senior BJP leader and former Union minister Maneka Gandhi in the Sultanpur constituency against SP candidate Rambhual Nishad by 43,174 votes.
Omar Abdullah's debacle
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah lost to Independent candidate Sheikh Abdul Rashid in the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency in Kashmir.
Annamalai fails to make it
The BJP's Tamil Nadu president Annamalai Kuppusamy lost in Coimbatore against DMK's Ganapathy Rajkumar P by 1,18,068 votes.
The BJP has emerged as the single largest party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections by winning 240 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. However, it is a far cry from the 303 mark it had achieved last time. According to the final tally, BJP won 240 seats and its main rival Congress 99.
(With PTI inputs)
