Smriti Irani, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, K Annamalai: 10 big upsets in Lok Sabha polls

Smriti Irani was eyeing Amethi for a second consecutive term

As counting of votes concluded in the biggest democracy, some noted political figures witnessed unexpected defeats. Contrary to the exit poll predictions which saw an easy win for the saffron party, the Congress-led opposition India bloc put up a surprisingly strong challenge at the polls.

The BJP fell short of the majority mark of 272, securing 240 seats while the opposition Congress won 99 constituencies.

Among some of the unpredicted defeats in this Lok Sabha election were  Union minister Smriti Irani, who lost the Amethi seat to Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who could not bag the Thiruvananthapuram constituency.

Here's a look at some of the big upsets this Lok Sabha polls:

1. Smriti Irani: BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Amethi, who was eyeing the seat for a second consecutive term, lost by a big margin. According to the Election Commission, Congress' old-timer KL Sharma won by over 1,67,196 votes.

2. Rajeev Chandrasekhar: BJP minister and candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, lost to Congress politician Shashi Tharoor by a margin of 16,000 votes.

3. K Annamalai: Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai lost to DMK's Ganapathy Rajkumar by over 1,18,068 votes.

4. Mehbooba Mufti: Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party's Mehbooba Mufti lost to Jammu & Kashmir National Conference's Mian Altaf Ahmad by a big margin of over 2.81 lakh votes.

5. Omar Abdullah: Jammu & Kashmir National Conference's Omar Abdullah lost to independent Abdul Rashid Sheikh by over 2 lakh votes.

6. Arjun Munda: Union BJP minister Arjun Munda from Jharkhand, Arjun Munda lost by 1,49,675 votes to Congress' Kali Charan Munda.

7. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury: Congress bigwig Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury lost to Congress' Yusuf Pathan by over 85,000 votes.

8. Raj Babbar: In Haryana's Gurgaon, Congress' Raj Babbar lost to BJP's Rao Inderjit Singh by a margin of over 75,000 votes.

9. Maneka Gandhi: BJP candidate Maneka Gandhi lost UP's Sultanpur seat to SP's Rambhual Nishad by 43,174 votes.

10. Bhupesh Baghel: Former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel lost to BJP's Santosh Pandey  by a margin of over 44,000 votes.