There was more than one loser in case of at least five families. Akbar `Dumpy' Ahmed of the BSP, former PM H.D. Deve Gowda, CWC member K. Vijayabhaskara Reddy, fellow Congressmen P. Shiv Shanker and G. Venkataswamy's families being among them.

If both Dumpy and his ex-model wife, Naina Balsaver, bit the dust from Azamgarh and Nainital, Gowda was humbled in Hassan. And his two sons lost their Assembly seats. It was double defeat for one of them, as he contested and won neither his Lok Sabha nor Assembly seat. Neither Reddy nor his son Surya-prakash could make it to Lok Sabha and Assembly respectively. Ditto with Shivshanker and Venkataswamy.

Uttar Pradesh also saw Louise Fernandes, UPCC chief Salman Khursheed's wife, being relegated to the third place. In Ghosi, the late Kalpanth Rai's wife Sudha Rai and his son from his firstwife, who contested against each other, made way for the BSP candidate.

In the west, the sons of both Jaswant Singh and Natwar Singh did not find favour with the Rajasthani electorate. And down south in Kerala, Sreedharan, son of the legendary Marxist ideologue E.M.S. Namboodiripad, couldn't make it. Former Union minister and chief minister K. Karunakaran and his son K. Muraleedharan, however, made it.

In neighbouring Kerala, it was a mixed bag for the family of S. Shivashankarappa. He lost his Lok Sabha seat while his son made it to the Assembly. But for fellow partyman S. Bangarappa and his actor-son, it was sweet success all the way.

Up north in Punjab, Union minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, son of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, came a cropper. Gurinder Singh, former chief minister Pratap Singh Kairon's son, lost. And so did Parneet Kaur, PPCC chief Amarinder Singh's wife. In Haryana, Bansi Lal's son Surinder Singh couldn't make it but opponent, Ajay Chautala, Chief Minister O.P. Chautala's son,found favour.

In the east too, former Orissa chief minister J.B. Patnaik's wife Jayanti lost from Koraput. But not chief minister Giridhar Ga-mang's wife, who made it by a margin of 12,000 votes.

In Andhra Pra-desh, none in N.T. Rama Rao's family, except CM N. Chandrababu Nai-du, came good. Rao's widow Lakshmi Parvathi and son lost in the Assembly polls.

Madhya Pradesh was an exception. CM Digvijay Singh's younger brother Laxman won his Lok Sabha seat, while Speaker Sriniwas Tiwari's son Sunderlal Tiwari won in Rewa. The Shukla family saw Shyama Charan Shukla make his maiden entry into the Lok Sabha. The Scindia family too had its success in Congress general secretary Madhavrao Scindia's election.

But again, former Union minister Arvind Netam's wife, state Public Works Minister Ravindra Choube's elder brother and former MP Nanalal Choudhary's daughter all lost.