Many offsprings of political leaders get a thumbs down in elections

This year's Lok Sabha elections saw many of the sons and daughters of Congress leaders failing to retain their family strongholds as party's tally dipped to a historic low of 44 seats out of 543.

Prominent among those who lost the elections are Sachin Pilot, Karti Chidambaram, Sandeep Dikshit, Milind Deora, Priya Dutt and Jitin Prasada. Sachin Pilot, son of former Union Minister late Rajesh Pilot, contested from Rajasthan's Ajmer constituency.

Sachin, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Corporate Affairs in the outgoing UPA government, lost to BJP's Sanwar Lal Jat by a margin of about 1.71 lakh votes.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti also lost elections from Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga constituency. Karti, who had made a debut in the polls from Sivaganga (represented by his father in last Lok Sabha), came in fourth position by securing 1,04,678 votes.

The constituency has been won by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate Senthilnathan PR. Kerala Governor and former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's son Sandeep lost East Delhi constituency.

Sandeep, who lost to BJP's Maheish Girri (5,72,202 votes), came at third position by getting 2,03,240 votes. Aam Aadmi Party's Rajmohan Gandhi got 3,81,739 votes.

Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra and former Cabinet Minister in UPA government Murli Deora's son Milind could not retain South-Mumbai constituency. Milind, Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology and also for Shipping, lost to Shivsena's Arvind Sawant by a margin of 1,28,148 votes.

Former Congress Union minister and late actor Sunil Dutt's daughter Priya failed to retain Maharashtra's Mumbai-North-Central seat. Priya lost to BJP's Poonam Mahajan, daughter of former Union Minister late Pramod Mahajan, by 1,86,771 votes.

Jitin Prasada, son of Congress leader late Jitendra Prasada, lost from Uttar Pradesh's Dhaurahra constituency. Jitin, who was Minister of State for Human Resource Development in the government which resigned on Saturday, secured fourth position by getting 1,70,994 votes.

BJP's Rekha won from Dhaurahra constituency. In Uttar Pradesh, Congress candidate Imran Masood was defeated by BJP's Raghav Lakhanpal by a margin of 65,090 votes in Saharanpur seat.

Imran is the son of Rasheed Masood, who was recently disqualified from Rajya Sabha recently after being found guilty by Supreme Court in a criminal case. Shruti Chowdhary, grand daughter of former Haryana Chief Minister, late Chaudhary Bansi Lal, lost from Haryana's Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat. She was at the third position by getting 2,68,115 votes.

The seat has been won by BJP's Dharambir (4,04,542 votes), who also defeated Indian National Lok Dal's Bahadur Singh (2,75,148 votes). In Lakshawdeep, Hamdullah Sayeed was defeated by Nationalist Congress Party's Mohammed Faizal P P by a margin of 1,535 votes.

Hamdullah, who is son of late PM Sayeed, a former Parliamentarian, got 20,130 votes. Assam's Social Welfare Minister Akon Borah's son Manash Borah, who had contested elections from Gauhati seat, lost to BJP's Bijoya Chakravarty by a margin of 3,15,784 votes.

Other than Congress, its ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Yadav's daughter Misha Bharati also lost from Bihar's Pataliputra seat. She was defeated by BJP's Ram Kripal Yadav by 40,322 votes.

In Karnataka, Janata Dal (Secular) chief HD Deve Gowda's son HD Kumaraswamy lost from Chikkballapur constituency. He came at third position by getting 3,46,339 votes.

Congress' M Veerappa Moily won from the seat by getting 4,24,800 votes as against 4,15,280 polled by BJP's B N Bache Gowda. Kumaraswamy's father HD Deve Gowda won from Karnataka's Hassan seat.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister, late S Bangarappa's daughter Geetha Shivarajkumar also lost election from the state's Shimoga seat. She came at third position by getting 2,40,636. BJP's B S Yeddyurappa won the seat by getting 6,06,216 votes. Congress' Manjunath Bhandary got 2,42,911 votes in the constituency.

In Maharashtra, Nilesh Rane lost from Ratnagiri- Sindhudurg seat. Rane, son of Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane, lost to Shivsena's Vinayak Bhaurao Raut by a margin of 1,50,051 votes.

In Madhya Pradesh, Ajay Singh was defeated by BJP's Ganesh Singh by 8,688 votes. Ajay is the son of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister late Arjun Singh. Ajay got 3,66,600 votes.

Arun Yadav, son of former Madhya Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Subhash Yadav, was also defeated by BJP's Nadkumar Singh Chouhan by a margin of 2,59,714 votes.

In Haryana, Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) party candidate Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of former state Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, lost to Indian National Lok Dal's Dushyant Chautala by a margin of 31,847 votes in Hisar constituency.

Dushyant is the grandson of former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala. In Chhattisgarh, Deepak Karma, son of anti-Naxal movement 'Salwa Judum' leader the late Mahendra Karma, lost from Bastar constituency.

Deepak, whose father was killed in a naxal attack last year, was defeated by BJP's Dinesh Kashyap by a margin of 1,24,359 votes. In Uttar Pradesh, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh's son Jayant Chaudhary lost to BJP's Hema Malini by a margin of 3,30,743 votes in Mathura constituency. His father and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh also lost from the state's Baghpat constituency.

Ajit Singh came at third position by getting 1,99,516. BJP's Satya Pal Singh won the seat by getting 4,23,475 votes as against 2,13,609 votes polled by Samajwadi Party's Ghulam Mohammed.

However, some of the offsprings of politicians did win in Lok Sabha elections. President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit won West Bengal's Jangipur constituency. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and his son and party's vice president Rahul Gandhi won from Rae Bareli and Amethi constituencies respectively by a comfortable margin.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, son of the late Madhavrao Scindia, won from Madhya Pradesh's Guna constituency by a margin of 1,20,792 votes. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's son Gourav won from state's Kaliabor parliamentary constituency by a margin of 93,874 votes.

Haryana's Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's son Deepender, won from Rohtak constituency. In Assam, Sushmita Dev won from Silchar seat as a Congress candidate. She is the daughter of former Union Minister Santosh Mohan Dev. Other than Congress, sons and daughters of other party leaders also won in the polls.

BJP's Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun Gandhi won from Uttar Pradesh's Pilibhit and Sultanpur seats respectively. Senior BJP leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha's son Jayant also won from Jharkhand's Hazaribagh constituency.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh's son Abhishek won from Rajnandgaon constituency as a BJP candidate. Rajasthan Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Vasundhara Raje's son Dushyant won from Jhalawar-Baran seat of the state. Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh's son Rajbir Singh won from state's Etah seat on a BJP ticket.

In Delhi, former BJP Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma's son Parvesh Verma won from West Delhi constituency. Anurag Thakur, son of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, won from state's Hamirpur seat.

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan's son Chirag won from Bihar's Jamui seat. Ram Vilas Paswan also won from Bihar's Hajipur constituency. In Maharashtra, Nationalist Congress Party chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule won from Baramati seat.