Pawan Kalyan loses by a wafer thin margin in Gajuwaka

Famous Telugu film actor and political debutante Pawan Kalyan who put in a tough fight has lost the Gajuwaka assembly election seat to YSR Congress' T Nagireddy by a little over 16,000 votes.

Kalyan's Jana Sena Party has won only a single seat, which has fought the elections in the state for the very first time.

The Telugu superstar Kalyan also joined the Mahagatbandhan coalition led by Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party, at a national level.

Tough terrain

The actor with many superhit movies under his belt, is also the brother of Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi. He followed his brother’s footsteps and kickstarted his own political party in 2014 but contested only this elections.

But Chiranjeevi’s party Praja Rajyam had failed to make an impact, merged with Congress and later vanished from electoral rolls and people’s minds. Kalyan also chose a tough constituency for his political debut since it is the largest constituency in the state.

Also, he had to fight off many ‘outsider’ slurs during the campaigning even as large masses attended his rallies.

Hassan’s boys to lose deposit

On the other hand, yet another South star Kamal Hassan is struggling too. While Hassan hasn’t contested himself, he fielded 21 candidates in 38 Lok Sabha seats. His party Makkal Needhi Mayyan (MNM) has not made an impact.

As per initial results, it looks like most of his candidates will be losing deposits with lower than the required vote share of 16%.

Hassan had to face multiple controversies during his campaign. The worst of them was his comments on Nathuram Godse, saying that he was ‘independent India’s first terrorist’.