Amit Shah, Smriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Kanimozhi — from Rajya Sabha to Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI: BJP president Amit Shah, Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Smriti Irani, and DMK leader Kanimozhi are among the prominent winners in the 2019 Lok Sabha election who are sitting Rajya Sabha members.


Shah, 54, was elected to the Upper House of Parliament in August 2017, making his parliamentary debut.

He won his first Lok Sabha election from the Gandhinagar constituency as results for the seven-phase polls were announced On Thursday.

The BJP president won by a margin of over 5.57 lakh votes against his nearest rival Congress' C J Chavda.

His colleagues in Rajya Sabha, Prasad and Irani, who hold law and textile portfolios respectively, also emerged victorious in 2019 polls, their maiden win in a general election.

Irani, 43, who had earlier served as an HRD minister and I&B minister in the Modi government, proved herself to be a giant-killer as she dethroned Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in Amethi by a margin of 55,120 votes, while Prasad, 64, dislodged sitting MP and former BJP member

Shatrughan Sinha

who fought on a Congress ticket by a margin of over 2.84 lakh in Patna Sahib constituency.

The TV actor-turned-politician had twice fought the Lok Sabha election unsuccessfully in 2004, losing to Congress leader Kapil Sibal in Chandni Chowk constituency and in 2014 suffered defeat at the hands of Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.

But it was not just BJP sitting Rajya Sabha members who tasted maiden victory in the general election, as DMK's 51-year-old Kanimozhi also scripted her first win in a general election.

She defeated her BJP rival by over 3.47 lakh in Thoothukkudi constituency.

However, Congress leader and party's Rajya Sabha MP B K Hariprasad lost to young Tejasvi Surya in Bangalore South constituency by a margin of over 3.31 lakh votes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday led his Bharatiya Janata Party to a super-sized victory for a second term in office, as his message of nationalism, security, Hindu pride and a New India was wholeheartedly embraced by voters across large swathes of the country.