NEW DELHI, OCT 18: They may be flopping on the silver screen in the current era of video piracy and general slump in filmdom, but they have certainly made their presence felt on the political firmament.Political parties know how film personalities draw crowds, as seen during the just-concluded elections. And even the complexion of the thirteenth Lok Sabha shows that it will have more film personalities than ever before.Compared to just one prominent star MP, Vinod Khanna (BJP), in the twelfth Lok Sabha, there are now seven members of the profession, including Sunil Dutt, who has returned to parliamentary politics after almost five years. Besides these two, actor-filmmaker Raj Babbar also makes his debut in the Lok Sabha after his stint in the Rajya Sabha.The other film personalities who have been elected to the Lok Sabha are: producer D. Rama Naidu (Telugu Desam Party), actor Krishnam Raju (BJP), leading Kannada hero Ambarish (Congress) and Shashi Kumar (Janata Dal-United). The Assembly electionshave seen the election of K. Srineevasa Rao (BJP) and rebel Congress candidate Yogeshwara.Perhaps the most notable victory is that of Sunil Dutt, who remained loyal to the Congress even when he was consistently denied a ministerial berth and many in the party turned their backs on him when his son, Sanjay, was in trouble. But the most creditable aspect of his victory is that he contested from Mumbai North West, defeating Shiv Sena leader Madhukarrao Sarpotdar by a margin of 82,000 votes.Dutt first entered the Lok Sabha in 1984, after defeating noted jurist Ram Jethamalani. He later won in 1989 as well as 1991. However, he resigned soon after, disturbed by the communal riots in Mumbai. He declined to enter the poll fray in 1996 as his son was arrested under TADA in the serial bomb blasts case.For Vinod Khanna, this is his second win from Gurdaspur. But unlike last year, he just managed to scrape through this time. Another BJP candidate, Nitish Bharadwaj (Krishna of the teleserial Mahabharat) lost theRajgarh Lok Sabha seat in MP, contesting against C M Digvijay Singh's brother, Laxman Singh of the Congress.Raj Babbar, who has entered the Lok Sabha from Agra on the Samajwadi Party ticket, is expected to resign the Rajya Sabha seat.In Andhra Telugu screen villian-turned-hero U. Krishnam Raju (BJP) won the Narsapur Lok Sabha seat in a triangular contest, trouncing his nearest Congress rival K. Bapiraju by a margin of 1,65,948 votes, the highest in the state.The wellknown Telugu film producer, D Rama Naidu, who has a record 100 films in different languages (Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali and Tamil) to his credit, won the Bapatla parliamentary seat as a TDP candidate by a margin of 92,457 votes, defeating his nearest rival Jesu Dasu Seelam of the Congress in his first election.Charactor actor Kota Srinivasa Rao made his debut in politics by winning the Vijayawada-East Assembly seat as a BJP candidate defeating Ilapuram Venkaiah of Congress by a margin of 6076 votes.Two film personalities whowere in the fray in Tamil Nadu, character actor S. Chandrasekhar and villain Mansoor Ali Khan, lost heavily. While Chandrasekhar was the DMK candidate in Dindigul, Khan contested from Periyakulam as a nominee of the Puthiya Thamizhagam, an ally of the TMC.In Karnataka, ``rebel star'' Ambarish, who is a leading Kannada hero, was elected from the Mandya parliamentary constituency on a Congress ticket, defeating Krishna of the JD (S).Sashikumar was successful in Chitradurga parliamentary constituency on a JD(U) ticket. He defeated C P Mudalagiriappa (INC). He has not been acting after an accident a few months back.In the Assembly polls in Karnataka, former Information Technology minister Anant Nag JD (U) was defeated in Basavanagudi by K N Subba Reddy (BJP). He lost his deposit. Nag, who has also acted in Hindi films, had represented Malleswaram constituency previously.
