Although the Lok Sabha Election 2014 has given the BJP the biggest win for any political party since 1984, it has also given us some epic fails. Here’s a list of the top 10 fails for Election 2014.
1.Arvind Kejriwal - Varanasi
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Corruption crusader Kejriwal was haunted by the ghosts of bad governance in New Delhi, where people had initially rewarded him with overwhelming faith and confidence – which he failed to live up to. It also turns out that though the Indian junta can still place its trust in the biggies even after they fail them, they could not be as forgiving with the Aam Aadmi Party. With his national political ambitions laid to rest temporarily after having lost to Narendra Modi by almost 50,000 votes; Arvind should for now only aim at winning the Delhi state elections. However, the election result could prove to be a symbolic statement for Kejriwal who could, perhaps win even by losing, provided he manages his defeat well.
2.Priya Dutt Roncon - Mumbai North Central
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Two-time MP from Mumbai North Central Priya Dutt could not complete her hat-trick as she lost to BJP candidate Poonam Mahajan in the Lok Sabha 2014 elections. Trailing by almost 16,000 votes, Priya’s performance was no aberration from Congress’ performance in these elections.
3.Rakhi Sawant - Mumbai North-West constituency
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First up – we congratulate Rakhi Sawant for having dreamt the impossible. Now, some serious reality check: the incorrigible motor-mouth who went on to form the independent Rashtriya Aam Party has managed to win merely 1500+ votes even after 3 rounds of counting. While Rakhi has her fair share of haters, we will just say that at least this woman isn’t corrupt, or a murderer, or a mute, silent spectator – something most of her adversaries have been charged with.
4.Kapil Sibal - Chandni Chowk
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After delivering a landslide victory in the previous elections in the Chandni Chowk constituency, high-profile Congress candidate Kapil Sibal suffered a crushing defeat of almost 1,00,000+ votes at the hands of BJP candidate Harshwardhan. The arrogant Kapil has already disappointed the youth of the country time and again with his shoddy educational policies and controversial statements. The reason perhaps, for his crushing debate is the dissolving of the Muslim Vote and the Pro-Modi wave.
5.Smriti Irani- Amethi
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She may have lost to RaGa, but BJP Vice-President Smriti Irani did manage to stir the Gandhi bastion of Amethi by giving him a neck-to-neck fight. Although initially leading the vote count causing jitters amongst Congress loyalists, Smriti trailed in votes soon after. She is said to be mentored closely by Narendra Modi who even campaigned for her for the Lok Sabha elections.
6.NOTA
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Although the ballot option of None Of The Above (NOTA) provided by the Supreme Court may have prevented certain undeserving candidates from having won a clear majority, its own performance so far certainly has nothing to write home about. Till now, only 44.95 lakh NOTA votes have been reported. Although the NOTA option has no electoral value, it is an important mechanism to keep politics clean by pushing political parties to provide better candidates.
7.Gul Panag- Chandigarh
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Chandigarh proved to be a celebrity turf in the Lok Sabha elections as two Bollywood actresses Gul Panag and Kirron Kher, contested for the constituency on behalf of AAP and BJP, respectively. However, Gul—the social media queen—lost her battle to Ms. Kirron Kher by almost 40,000 votes, while even losing to Congress candidate Pawan Bansal by 10,000 votes.
8.Yogendra Yadav- Gurgaon
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AAP’s Yogendra Yadav lost to BJP candidate Rao Inderjit in Gurgaon. Yogendra is a political scientist and former editor of the Hindi news channel IBN7. He is also said to be the chief strategist of AAP. After conceding defeat, Yogendra said, “All in all, it has been a good start for AAP”.
9.Salman Khurshid- Farrukhabad
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Another Senior Congress leader bit the dust; Salman Khurshid, the sitting MP from Farukkhabad lost the election and came at the fifth position in his consistuency. Earlier in the 2009 elections, Khurshid had won from Farrukhabad by over 1.70 lakh votes. He was the external affairs minister in the outing UPA-II government.
10.Arun Jaitley- Amritsar
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Another close Modi aide failed to make the cut. Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley lost the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat to Congress candidate Amarinder Singh by nearly 90,000 votes. Jaitley had hoped to win the position of the Finance Minister if he would have won.
Photo: © BCCL (Main Image)