From Kirti Azad to Dilip Tirkey, a look back at the performances of former athletes – Firstpost

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections concluded on Tuesday and even as the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is set to form the next government, the BJP is yet to achieve a majority. The Congress-led INDI Alliance put on a show by winning 232 seats.

A few former sportspersons have entered the political arena and contested in the 2024 general elections. Some of them are former cricketers Yusuf Pathan and Kirti Azad, hockey legend Dilip Tirkey, Paralympic medalist Devendra Jhajhariya and former footballer and Arjuna Award winner Prasun Banerjee.

Now let’s take a look at how each of these former sporting icons fared in the general election:

Yusuf Pathan

World Cup winner Yusuf Pathan received a ticket from the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) in Baharampur, West Bengal.

Yusuf took on Congress candidate Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, and the former all-rounder emerged victorious by 85,022 votes, ending the latter’s record five consecutive terms.

Kirti Azad

Kirti Azad, a member of India’s historic 1983 World Cup triumph, also got a ticket to the AITC this time. He defeated Dilip Ghosh of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the Durgapur seat, by 1,37,981 votes, marking a successful return to his political career.

Kirti, who is the son of Bhagwat Azad Jha, former chief minister of Bihar, had won twice on a BJP ticket in 2009 and 2014, but was expelled for exposing corruption in the Delhi & District Cricket Association under the leadership of the late Arun Jaitley, who was the then Finance Minister.

Azad contested under the Congress ticket from Dhanbad in 2019, but ended up losing.

Prasun Banerjee

Prasun Banerjee, former Indian footballer and brother of the great PK Banerjee, defeated BJP’s Dr Rathin Chakravarty by 1,69,442 in West Bengal to begin his third consecutive term in the Lok Sabha.

Prasun, who played for Mohun Bagan, Mohammedan Sporting besides playing for India, had become the first professional footballer to get a Lok Sabha seat in 2013 when he won the by-elections under the AITC banner .

Dilip Tirkey

Legendary hockey player Dilip Tirkey suffered a defeat from Sundargarh to BJP’s Jual Oram by over a lakh votes. Dilip had contested for Biju Janata Dal (BJD) but suffered a complete defeat. Tirkey, who played for India in three editions of the Olympics, is currently the president of Hockey India. From 2012 to 2018, he served as a Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha.

Devendra Jhajhariya

Former Paralympic medalist Devendra Jhajhariya had contested from Rajasthan on a BJP ticket, but lost to Rahul Kaswan of the Indian National Congress by 72,736 votes. The former javelin thrower is the current president of the Indian Paralympic Committee, having succeeded Deepa Malik.