New Delhi: Political families have made substantial gains in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with many family members either winning or leading in their respective constituencies.
Prominent among these are the families of two former chief ministers—Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar, Samajwadi Party (SP) founder the late Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh—and former prime minister and JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda in Karnataka.
In Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughters, Misha Bharti and Rohini Acharya, contested from Patliputra and Saran, respectively. According to the latest Election Commission trends, Bharti has secured a comfortable margin of around 56,000 votes over BJP’s Ram Kripal Yadav in Patliputra. Acharya, however, is trailing behind BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy by over 12,000 votes in Saran.
In Uttar Pradesh, five members of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family contested the elections, with four of them leading by significant margins. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is leading in Kannauj with a margin of 1.7 lakh votes against BJP’s Subrat Pathak. His wife, Dimple Yadav, has secured a winning margin of 2.2 lakh votes in Mainpuri against BJP’s Jayveer Singh. Akhilesh’s cousins, Akshay Yadav and Dharmendra Yadav, are also leading; Akshay by over 89,000 votes against BJP’s Vishwadeep Singh in Firozabad, and Dharmendra by 1.6 lakh votes in Azamgarh. Aditya Yadav, in a close contest with BJP’s Durvijay Singh Shakya in Badaun, has yet to secure a decisive lead.
In Karnataka, two members of H D Deve Gowda’s family have won their seats. Gowda’s son, H D Kumaraswamy, won the Mandya seat, defeating Congress’ Venkataramane Gowda by over 2.8 lakh votes. Gowda’s son-in-law, BJP candidate Manjunath, secured the Bangalore Rural seat, defeating Congress’ DK Suresh by over 2.6 lakh votes. However, Gowda’s grandson, Prajwal Revanna, who faces charges of sexual abuse, lost the Hassan parliamentary constituency to Congress’ Shreyas M Patel by over 42,000 votes.
This election has proved to be highly successful for many political families, with significant wins across key constituencies.