Seasoned politicos like Kirron Kher and Hema Malini were joined by newbies such as Sunny Deol in this election season

24 May, 2019

Celebs around the world have been known to capitalise on their star power to launch political careers — and Bollywood stars are no different.

Actors like Kirron Kher, Hema Malini and Urmila are now fairly politically seasoned; in India's just concluded elections, they were joined by a few first-timers such as Sunny Deol!

How did they fare? Let's find out.

Kirron Kher

BJP candidate Kirron Kher bagged the Chandigarh seat for the second time in a row! She won the seat with 14,654 votes, reports NDTV.

Her husband Anupam Kher was obviously elated:

Hema Malini

BJP candidate Hema Malini also succeeded in retaining her seat in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura.

Esha Deol tweeted her excitement over her mother's winning streak:

Sunny Deol

He may be new to politics but actor Sunny Deol did his bit for BJP and won the Gurdaspur seat by over 82,000 votes.

Speaking about his success, Deol said: “I am feeling good and I am very happy. I was confident that people of this constituency (Gurdaspur) love me a lot and will ensure my victory.”

However, not every celebrity emerged a winner...

Urmila

Urmila Matondkar lost in her Mumbai North constituency. While she congratulated her triumphant rival, she also conveyed her suspicions about foul play:

Shatrughan Sinha

Veteran actor Shatrughan Sinha lost from Bihar's Patna Sahib seat.

Comments

bhaRAT© May 24, 2019 05:10pm

Look around in the world, you will not find ONE such man who made it so big in the political arena, except Imran Khan. Legends and stars like Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronald Reagan, Amitabh Bachan, Sunil Dutt, Dharmendra, Govinda, Shatrugan, Sachin Tendulkar, Ranatunga and countless others entered politics because of their fame and fan followings but where are they today? They all decided to join one of the mainstream parties because it wasn't possible for them to succeed on their own, and none of them made any considerable contribution.

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Ibrahim May 24, 2019 05:33pm

They were over the hill as actors.

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venkatesh May 24, 2019 05:58pm

Well deserved win for the BJP candidates. The ones like Shatrugun Sinha was a typical Shatru to BJP and deserved the defeat. Urmila will do well to just lie low instead of getting into things in which her knowledge is zero and which even her super seniors have not commented upon.

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al May 24, 2019 06:04pm

Good to know that there is a life after Bollywood! Hope this trend does not start in Pakistan. If we get leaders like Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan, we might as well hand the army over to our next door neighbor!!

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Abraham D Haque May 24, 2019 06:36pm

@Ibrahim and the point is???????

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Kailash Singh May 24, 2019 06:45pm

I voted for Sunny Deol. We are proud of him and his family.

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Tamilselvan May 24, 2019 07:05pm

Urmila, stop wining and get over the sour grape story and don’t seek sympathy . You contested and you lost. Move on .

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Dr.Sadaf May 24, 2019 07:36pm

@Kailash Singh , and that was the only reason why you voted for him.

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Premsan May 24, 2019 07:55pm

@bhaRAT© Dear, southern indian superstars MGR and NTR stormed to power within few months of forming their new parties, beating formidable Mrs Indra Gandhi congress. Unlike Imran Khan, they didn't had armed forces backing and wait for 22 good years.

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AHB May 24, 2019 08:11pm

@bhaRAT© Well, Reagan was the President of the United States and he is now dead so ...

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Shah May 24, 2019 08:19pm

The Deol guy is older then the Neanderthal but his beared is still black. What vitamins do he take?

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Veer Singh May 24, 2019 09:01pm

@bhaRAT© - Well the obvious difference is that all those other celebrities you mentioned, earned their positions in real elections and were not "selected" by any establishment. The only thing Imran has proven so far is that he's not capable of handling the job he was selected for. I very much doubt he will last one full term.

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rajah May 24, 2019 09:06pm

These are just hindi/bollywood actors. There are dozen others in Bengal/South/Maharashtra/Bihar who have participated and many won. Manoj Tiwari, Moon Moon Sen, KRK, Lara Dutta, Ravi Kishen, Babul Supriyo, Comedian Bhagwant Mann and many more. But no one is a bigger actor than one Mr Arvind Kejriwal, who unfortunately did not stand for elections.

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Syv May 24, 2019 09:07pm

@bhaRAT© a little correction Tendulkar never contested in election he was nominated to rajya sabha ( upper house ) ..... A little research never hurts .

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bhaRAT© May 24, 2019 09:21pm

@Premsan And they have become PM?

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bhaRAT© May 24, 2019 09:22pm

Polarisation & extremism will flourish. This is what most wish by the looks of it!

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S. Chatterjee May 24, 2019 09:27pm

I am a senior citizen so my only desire before death is to see that people of India and Pakistan live blissfully and peacefully. If we can have bliss and peace then not only both countries will economically prosper but entire region will develop. We have been endowed with huge natural, mineral and human resources. Because of our resources British came here, ruled us and also plundered and finally left by dividing us so that sustainable conflict continues and finally we cannot economically prosper. Now time has come let us have positive relation, let us have brotherhood feelings.

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Rajasekhar May 24, 2019 09:44pm

The next in line to dive into the politics is Shahid Afridi. God bless Pakistan from Afridi. R.S. Menon, Bangalore

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RationalBabu May 24, 2019 10:08pm

@al , Silly comment!

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RationalBabu May 24, 2019 10:11pm

@bhaRAT©, for once, I would agree with most of your comment!

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Muhammed ali May 24, 2019 10:35pm

Is it any wonder that celebrities in politics is a reason our countries struggle? Just the way a tailor would not be able to do an engineer's job the same applies here. Just because these people stood on a ticket that would have got a monkey elected does not mean that they are capable of doing justice to the office they were elected to. Shame on them and shame on the voters who voted on such people.

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Rahul May 24, 2019 11:31pm

@bhaRAT© indian celebrities and even retired army personnel is allowed to contest election on party ticket but they were never allowed to get higher position in politics nor they are given any cabinet rank ministry in india. Politics suits politician they just garner vote for themselves and party.

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Ranajyoti May 24, 2019 11:35pm

@al Fawad Choudhury is more than enough.

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Lodhia Ebrahim May 24, 2019 11:35pm

@Premsan In the first place your South Indian stars were regional politicians, secondly you don’t have any proof the Armed Forces were backing Imran and even they were it was for a good cause as they could see corruption at its peak during Zardari and Sharif ‘s rule, besides no international organizations have expressed any doubts about the voting during the elections. Corruption level is low in your country but we needed an honest person at the helm as the country was sliding into greed and chaos.

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Aman Madan May 25, 2019 01:03am

@bhaRAT© Reagen is dead but was a 2 time president. Arnold is also a 2 time governor and constitutionally can't run for president as he isn't US born. These two have certainly matched imran Khan in reaching the top of the ladder.

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Observer May 25, 2019 02:20am

@Aman Madan Maybe Reagan did but I guess Arnold couldn’t contest the US presidential elections as he clearly isn’t US-born. Regardless, they both joined the Republican Party to establish themselves politically instead of running as independents or by creating a new political party to launch themselves in the political arena like Mr. Imran Khan did.

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bhaRAT© May 25, 2019 02:24am

@Aman Madan If you read my last paragraph, it will clarify the difference!

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bhaRAT© May 25, 2019 02:24am

@Premsan If you knew our history, the only person who became PM due to forces was Nawaj; thanks to Zia ul Haq!

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bhaRAT© May 25, 2019 02:28am

@AHB If you read my last paragraph, it will clarify the difference!

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Mani May 25, 2019 04:43am

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Sabir Punjabi May 25, 2019 05:10am

They all joined BJp as they knew bjp would win. No one joined the sinking ships parties. In future these same people will join other parties

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Handa May 25, 2019 05:32am

@bhaRAT© - You are right but must not forget, Imran was not alone (yes, he was not alone). He was more than adequately supported by two strong institutions of Pakistan.

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Zak May 25, 2019 06:27am

Who cares about these losers, inconsequential and irrelevant.

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Sweets May 25, 2019 06:55am

@bhaRAT© Well 'Amma' Jayalalithaa was not a PM because she will never leave Tamilnadu.But she has capability to being down a PM. She brought down a ruling govt under Atal Vajpayee. So in any case elected celebrity leader is greater than selected PM.

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Issak May 25, 2019 11:14am

By using star power of Bollywood actors only solidified the suspicion that the BJP leadership lives in a make believe fantasy world... the young indian public has lost since only 600 million turned up to vote instead of the eligible 900 million...the next 5 years will be highly damaging to the poor, minorities,farmers, unemployed...

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Adil May 25, 2019 11:19am

@Aman Madan Nobody cares , coz at the end of the day he is flop with bad policies and we are at IMF doors again to take fresh loans.

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Lord_ickenham May 25, 2019 11:38am

@Abraham D Haque - you ask what is @Ibrahim's point. It's simple. It made him feel better. Shouldn't that be enough?

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Lord_ickenham May 25, 2019 11:42am

@Zak looks like you do care. You seem to hate everything you secretly love dear Zak :-)

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@Mani As I said Ronald Regan joined one of the mainstream parties, like other I mentioned.

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UM May 25, 2019 03:15pm

@Aman Madan : Matched? That’s an understatement- Reagan as US President was leader of the free world and the most powerful man of his times. Arnold Schwarzenegger wa the Governor of California - America’s largest state and by GDP, an economy nearly the size of Germany. Pakistan is insignificant by comparison...

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ishahxeb May 25, 2019 04:02pm

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Ravi May 25, 2019 05:25pm

None of them are going to make a difference.

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Allama Iftikhar May 25, 2019 06:48pm

I would like to congratulate all winners of India, election, and those whom are the losers of the show must not be disappointed. Hope is always there . This is a courageous step you taken to participate

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