Film stars, football icons and singers contested the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal in a departure from parties fielding seasoned politicians, but they had a mixed luck.
One of the biggest upsets was the defeat of nine-time MP Basudeb Acharia of CPI(M) from the Bankura constituency at the hands of rookie Moon Moon Sen, yesteryears filmstar.
The actress, known for her glamour quotient, defeated Acharia by 97,511 votes.
But as she herself had put it prior to the polls to PTI, "It is mainly Mamata Banerjee and the party. I have just added two per cent to that".
Reigning cinestar Dev and yesteryears actress Sandhya Roy won from Ghatal and Midnapore seats respectively in West Midnapore district, where the local body elections were swept by the TMC in 2013.
Satabdi Roy and Tapas Pal, who were sitting TMC MPs from Birbhum and Krishnagar in South Bengal, retained their seats.
It was a case of mixed fortunes for TMC's star candidates in North Bengal with band singer Soumitra Roy losing in Malda North, while thespian Arpita Ghosh won the Balurghat seat in South Dinajpur district, where the party had a strong organisation.
A former soccer star Prasun Banerjee, who had won the Howrah constituency in a byelection in 2013 for the TMC, was renominated and won the seat by a comfortable margin.
