Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

The Babalog triumph

May 17, 2009 10:25 IST
Priya Dutt
Priya Dutt

She has won the Mumbai North Central seat by defeating lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani by a margin of almost 200,000 votes. This is Priya's second win as an MP, she first contested the seat in 2005 after her father Sunil Dutt's death.

Sunil Dutt was one of the rare film stars who became a successful MP. Her brother Sanjay Dutt is a general secretary of the Samajwadi Party.

The Babalog triumph

May 17, 2009 10:25 IST
Sachin Pilot meets voters in Ajmer
Sachin Pilot

The Congress candidate defeated his BJP rival Kiran Maheshwari by 76,209 votes. Pilot moved from Dausa to Ajmer in Rajasthan to contest the 2009 election.

An alumnus from St Stephen's, New Delhi and the Wharton Business School, he is the son of Rajesh Pilot, the former minister and MP from Dausa who died in a road accident in June 2000. His father-in-law is Dr Farooq Abdullah, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, who won the Srinagar parliamentary seat.

The Babalog triumph

May 17, 2009 10:25 IST
M K Azhagiri
M K Azhagiri

Azhagiri, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's elder son, won the Madurai Lok Sabha seat, trouncing the CPI-M's P Mohan by over 140,000 votes.

This is Azhagiri's maiden win in an election. His father Karunanidhi has been the chief minister of Tamil Nadu five times and has never lost an election in a 60 year-old-career.

The Babalog triumph

May 17, 2009 10:25 IST
B Y Raghavendra
B Y Raghavendra

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa's son won the Shimoga seat, defeating former Congress chief minister S Bangarappa, by 52,893 votes. The BJP wrests the seat from the Samajwadi Party; Bangarappa won the seat in 2004 as a candidate from that party.

Raghavendra's father is the first BJP chief minister of any South Indian state.

The Babalog triumph

May 17, 2009 10:25 IST
Agatha Sangma
Agatha Sangma

The Nationalist Congress Party candidate defeated the Congress's Deborah Marak by 17,945 votes in the Tura Lok Sabha constituency in Meghalaya.

Agatha first won the seat in a by-election in 2008 after her father, the affable former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Aitok Sangma, vacated the seat to return to state politics.

Tura in Mehgalaya has been a Sangma bastion for over three decades.

The Babalog triumph

May 17, 2009 10:25 IST
Akhilesh Yadav
Akhilesh Yadav

The 35-year-old Samajwadi Party candidate who contested from Kannauj and Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh has won Kannauj.

Samajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's elder son, Akhilesh defeated Mahesh Verma of the Bahujan Samaj Party by 111,000 votes.

This win secures his place in a third consecutive Lok Sabha.

He was reportedly not confident about winning Kannauj that elected him in 2004, and therefore decided to contest from Firozabad as well.

In 2000, Akhilesh was elected to the 13th Lok Sabha via a by-election. His father Mulayam Singh has been chief minister of UP thrice, a former Union defence minister and one of north India's most powerful leaders.

The Babalog triumph

May 17, 2009 10:25 IST
Sandeep Dixit
Sandeep Dixit

Popular three-time Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit's son has retained the East Delhi seat.

He defeated the BJP's Chetan Chauhan, the former India cricketer, by 240,000 votes.

His mother is regarded as one of the country's best chief ministers; his late grandfather Umashankar Dixit, a freedom fighter and Union minister, was one of Indira Gandhi's key advisers.

The Babalog triumph

May 17, 2009 10:25 IST
Nilesh Rane
Nilesh Rane

Nilesh Rane, 27, the Congress candidate in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, defeated his nearest Shiv Sena rival Suresh Prabhu, the former Union minister.

Nilesh is the son of former Mahaarshtra chief minister Narayan Rane who left the Sena to join the Congress in 2005. Narayan Rane had worked to ensure Prabhu's victory in 1999 and 2004.

The Babalog triumph

May 17, 2009 10:25 IST
Milind Deora, left, with Salman Khan
Milind Deora

Reportedly close to Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, he has become an MP for the second time from the Mumbai South seat.

The son of Union petroleum minister and four-time MP Murli Deora, Milind was pitted against the Shiv Sena, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and banker Meera Sanyal in the contest.

On his Web site, he says he asked 472 questions in the last Lok Sabha and recorded an attendance of 75 per cent, against the average 73 per cent.

The Babalog triumph

May 17, 2009 10:25 IST
Varun Gandhi
Varun Gandhi

Maneka Gandhi won the Pilibhit seat in Uttar Pradesh five times before she handed it over to her only child this election.

The contest in Pilibhit was dogged by controversy after Varun was accused of making provocative anti-Muslim comments in early March. Voter turnout in Pilibhit was 64.5 per cent, the highest in any constituency in the state.

Varun's father Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's younger son, was the MP from Amethi when he died in an air crash in June 1980. Varun was then only three months and 18 days old.

In a recent interview, his cousin Priyanka Gandhi disclosed that she has not seen Varun since his 18th birthday 11 years ago. Maneka Gandhi stormed out of Indira Gandhi's home in 1982, presumably when India's then prime minister indicated that she would prefer her elder son Rajiv as her political successor.

The Babalog triumph

May 17, 2009 10:25 IST
Jyotiraditya Scindia
Jyotiraditya Scindia

Maharaj, as he is known in the Gwalior-Guna area in Madhya Pradesh, had no doubt about winning this election. It was the margin of victory that he was concerned about. Sure enough, he won the Guna Lok Sabha seat by 249,000 votes, far better than his 2004 margin.

The Union minister comes from a family which has one of the country's most formidable electoral records. His father Madhavrao Scindia was elected to Parliament nine times and never once lost an election.

His grandmother Vijayaraje Scindia represented both Guna and Gwalior in the Lok Sabha; Gwalior is now held by his aunt Yashodhara Raje, a BJP MP, who retained the seat by 25,000 votes.

Jyotiraditya, who became a member of Manmohan Singh's government last year, is now a three-time Congress MP. His cousin Dushyant Singh, the BJP MP and former Rajasthan chief minister's son, also won re-election from Jhalawar.