5 big faces who lost the 2023 state assembly elections

The verdicts of the five states that went for elections are out. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has scored an astounding victory in the Hindi heartland, winning the three states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh.

The Indian National Congress (INC) had to bite the dust in all three states, with the only breather coming from the Telangana, where it dethroned the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and won the state for the first time since its formation.

In the battle for the assembly seats, there have also been big names who have faced setbacks, indicating a big shift in voters' mood.

Here are five big names who lost their constituencies:

1. Narottam Mishra (BJP): Datia, Madhya Pradesh

• The BJP might have swept Madhya Pradesh, winning 164 out of 230 seats, but its incumbent Home Minister, Narottam Mishra, has surprisingly lost his seat.
• Mishra lost the Datia seat against Congress’s Rajendra Bharti by 7,742 votes. While Mishra polled 81,235 votes, Bhati garnered 88,977 votes.
• Mishra had been winning the seat since 2008 against Congress, though in 2018, he had a narrow win against Bharti by 2,656 votes.
• The contest this time was expected to go down to the wire, as Rajendra Bhati had once again challenged Mishra from the seat.
• The veteran Congress leader had earlier won the seat in 1985 and 1998, but in 2003, Congress’s Ghansyam Singh had won it on a Congress ticket.

2. TS Singh Deo (Congress): Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh

• Chhattisgarh’s outgoing Deputy CM TS Singh Deo shockingly lost the Ambikapur seat by a mere 94 votes.
• Deo’s loss comes against the BJP's Rajesh Agarwal, who secured 90,780 votes against Singh’s tally of 90,686.
• In the initial rounds, Singh was very well ahead, but he came in second in the last few rounds, which is when the result tilted towards the BJP candidate.
• In 2018, Deo had secured a resounding victory from this seat, getting over 1 lakh votes, which made up 56% of the vote share.
• The constituency boasts an estimated percentage of 38% of the SC tribal vote, which seems to have voted in large numbers for the BJP this time.
• The BJP's massive vote share among the tribal voters is also considered a big reason why it won the Chhattisgarh elections, much against what the exit polls had predicted.

3. Govind Ram Meghwal (Congress): Khajuwala, Rajasthan

•  BJP's Vishwanath Meghwal defeated the Cabinet Minister, Govind Ram Meghwal, from the Khajuwala constituency by a considerable margin of 17,374 votes.
• Meghwal is among the 17 out of 25 top Congress leaders who lost the Rajasthan assembly elections.
• Govind Ram had won the seat in 2018 against Vishwanath only, a seat that the BJP candidate Vishwanath had won in 2008 and 2013 before losing in 2018.
• Since there was massive anti-incumbency against the Congress in Rajasthan amid a BJP wave, Govind Ram Meghwal was one of several leaders who lost their seats.

4. Bandi Sanjay Kumar (BJP): Karimnagar, Telangana

• The BJP might have increased its tally from 1 to 8 in Telangana, but its National General Secretary and Telangana MP, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, has lost the assembly seat for the third time in a row.
• Kumar’s defeat came against BRS’s Gangula Kamalakar, who prevailed over the BJP MP by a thin margin of 3,163 votes.
• Kamalakar has held the Karimnagar constituency since 2008, and he defeated Sanjay Kumar consecutively in 2014 and 2018 as well.
• Kumar had surprisingly won the 2019 Lok Sabha election from the Karimnagar seat, surprising many in the party as the BJP never had a stronghold in Telangana.
• However, his assembly manoeuvres have not been successful in the last nine years.

5. Mohammed Azharuddin (Congress): Jubilee Hills, Telangana

• Former Indian cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin’s endeavour to restart his political innings didn’t turn out to be a success, as the 60-year-old cricketer lost the Jubilee Hills seat by a margin of 16,337 votes.
• Contesting on a Congress ticket, Azharuddin was among the few unfortunate candidates who couldn’t reap the benefits of a Congress wave in Telangana.
• Azharuddin lost against BRS candidate Maganti Gopinath, who has been winning the seat since 2014.
• The cricketer had won the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 on a Congress ticket from UP’s Moradabad constituency but didn’t contest the 2014 elections.
• Azharuddin was widely expected to win the seat, as he had significant public support during the rallies.