Mixed fortune for Film personalities in K'taka

Bangalore, May 26 (UNI) The tinsel town's foray into politics in Karnataka met with a mixed bag of success in the recent Assembly elections with only three of the seven film personalities in fray making it to the Vidhana Soudha.

Among the successful contestants were cop turned film star B C Patil (INC Hirekerur), Producer Actor C P Yogeshwar (INC) winning a third term from Channapatna and Actor Jaggesh (INC) from Turuvekere.

Rebel Star Ambaresh, a former Union Minister and three term Lok Sabha member suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of a green horn Ramesh Bandisiddegowda(JD-S). It was a second defeat for Ambaresh who had earlier contested in a by election from Ramanagaram.

Another popular multilingual actor Saikumar, who entertained the electorate with dialogue from Telugu and Kannada movies failed miserably in the political box office, as the audience who heard him in the campaign meetings chose to elect N Sampangi of the Congress in Bagepalli in Chikballapur District. Saikumar finished a poor fourth in the contest.

Mahendra, Film Director, who campaigned vigorously with his actress wife Shruti flopped in Kollegal. Actress Umashree a former Member of the legislative council also fared poorly in Terdal.

Actor Shashikumar, who had earlier been to the Lok Sabha from Chitradurga, lost narrowly from Challakere to BJP veteran Thippeswamy by a margin of 289 votes.

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