9 former Congress CMs bite the dust in Lok Sabha election 2019

Congress was claiming a resurgence across India but Lok Sabha election results on Thursday once again proved that the grand old party was no match for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Nine party leaders, all former chief ministers of different states, lost the Lok Sabha election on Thursday, dealing a massive blow to the Congress leadership’s plans of mounting a challenge to the BJP.

Those who faced defeat in Lok Sabha election 2019 include former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit from North East Delhi, Bhupinder Singh Hooda from Sonipat in Haryana, Harish Rawat (Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar in Uttarakhand) and ex-Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh from Bhopal. The others who lost are ex-Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan from Nanded, Sushil Kumar Shinde from Maharashtra’s Solapur, Mukul Sangma from Tura in Meghalaya, Nabam Tuki from Arunachal West and Veerappa Moily from Chikkballapur in Karnataka.

All except Mukul Sangma met their nemesis in a BJP candidate. While North East Delhi elected BJP’s Manoj Tiwari, Ramesh Chander Kaushik of the BJP won from Sonipat, Ajay Bhatt bagged Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur emerged victorious in Bhopal, Nanded went to Prataprao Patil Chikhalikar.

Jai Sidheshwar Shivachary Mahaswamiji won in Solapur, Kiren Rijiju bagged Arunachal West while BN Bache Gowda had the last laugh in Chikkballapur. Mukul Sangma lost to Agatha Sangma of the National People's Party in Tura Lok Sabha seat.

The Rahul Gandhi-led party’s rout was an almost replication of the 2014 Lok Sabha election when the Congress was reduced to 44 seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Congress managed just about to cross the half-century mark in the Lok Sabha, winning in 51 seats.