Lok Sabha Election Results: Two World Cup winners elected to the Parliament
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Team India has yet to begin its campaign in the T20 World Cup, but two former champions have already tasted victories in the Lok Sabha Elections.
Former India cricketers Kirti Azad and Yusuf Pathan have been elected from West Bengal.
Pathan secured 5,24,516 votes to topple Congress' Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury by a margin of 85,022 from the Baharampur constituency while Azad won from Bardhaman-Durgapur. Azad secured 7,20,667 votes to beat BJPs Dilip Ghosh by a margin of 1,37,981.
Both of them contested as All India Trinamool Congress candidates.
Pathan, who was a member of the Indian team that won the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup in 2007 had added the ICC Cricket World Cup title to his name in 2011.
On his political debut, the former all-rounder stumped Chowdhury, a six-time MP.
Azad, who was part of India's historic triumph in the 1983 World Cup, will be returning to the Parliament after a huge setback in the 2019 polls.
Azad began his political career with the BJP, and was a former MLA from Delhi's Gole Market, which is now known as the New Delhi Assembly Constituency. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014 from Darbhanga. Upon suspension from the BJP, Azad joined the Congress and contested the 2019 General Elections from Dhanbad. He tasted a heavy defeat at the hands of BJP's Pashupati Nath Singh, by a margin of 4,86,000 votes.
In 2019, another World Cup winner, Gautam Gambhir was elected to the lower house from East Delhi. He was however denied a seat this time and a few days before the announcement of the candidates list, Gambhir quit the BJP.