Gautam Gambhir and Rajyavardhan Rathore were the big winners -- while Kirti Azad, Vijender Singh and Krishna Poonia lost -- among sportspersons who were in the field for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections for the Indian parliament, the results of which were announced starting May 23.
While Gambhir and Rathore rode the wave of the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), among those that lost were BJP's Kalyan Chaubey, while former BJP parliamentarian Kirti Azad lost his first election in four attempts, contesting on a Congress ticket.
Here's how the sportspersons fared in India's latest elections:
Gautam Gambhir (East Delhi)
The former India cricketer stood on a BJP ticket from East Delhi, and beat his nearest rival Arvinder Singh Lovely of the Congress by a margin of 3,91,222 votes. East Delhi was expected to be a close contest, especially with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fielding Atishi Marlena, but Gambhir garnered more than 55 percent of the vote share, as his party won all seven seats that were on offer from Delhi.
Rajyavardhan Rathore and Krishna Poonia (Jaipur Rural)
Between the two of them, Rajyavardhan Rathore and fellow Olympian Krishna Poonia accounted for over 97 percent of all votes cast in Jaipur Rural, but the margin of victory in favour of the incumbent Rathore stood at 3,93,171. This was over 64 percent of all votes cast.
Former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Poonia, who had won a seat during the legislative assembly elections in Rajasthan last year, finished second to BJP's Rathore.
It was the only bilateral contest between two former Olympians, a unique event of its kind in the history of Indian politics.
Vijender Singh (South Delhi)
Former Olympic medallist boxer Vijender Singh stood on a Congress ticket from South Delhi, and garnered only 13.6 percent of the votes, almost half of runner-up Raghav Chadha from the AAP. Chadha himself lost to Ramesh Bidhuri of the BJP by a margin of 3,67,043 votes.
Kirti Azad (Dhanbad)
Three-time member of parliament from Darbhanga, Bihar, 1983 Cricket World Cup winner for India Kirti Azad joined Congress after his expulsion from the BJP, for whom he had won his last elections in 2014. The reason for his expulsion was his clear opposition to Arun Jaitley, finance minister of the previous government and one of the strongest administrators in Delhi cricket, and his support to the Lodha reforms. The switch to Dhanbad, Jharkhand didn't work out well as he lost to Pashupati Nath Singh of BJP by a whopping 4,86,194 votes.
Kalyan Chaubey (Krishnanagar)
The closest contest involving a sportsperson in this election was in Krishnanagar, West Bengal, where former Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Salgaocar, JCT and Mumbai FC goalkeeper Kalyan Chaubey was standing for Lok Sabha elections for the first time on a BJP ticket. Even as his party made inroads in a state where they have previously experienced close to no success, Chaubey lost to All India Trinamool Congress candidate Mahua Moitra by 63,218 votes.