Political families fight it out to hold on to their bastions

In face of a massive wave in favour of the BJP sweeping the country, many political families managed to keep their forts secure while some, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, conceded defeat. Sonia Gandhi's victory in Rae Bareli lost its sheen courtesy her son Rahul, who conceded defeat in Amethi, a traditional bastion of his family, to the BJP's Smriti Irani.

The Union textile minister is leading in the seat by a margin of 47,212 votes. The Congress president, however, is heading towards a comfortable victory in Kerala's Wayanad where he is leading by over 4 lakh votes.

The other mother-son duo from the Gandhi family -- Maneka and Varun -- who have contested on BJP ticket from Sultanpur and Pilibhit respectively have won. In the Samajwadi Party's first family, party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is leading in Mainpuri by 93,878 votes while Akhilesh is looking comfortable in Azamgarh with a lead of over 2.54 lakh votes.

However, Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav is trailing by 8,888 votes in Kannauj seat. While BJP star candidate from the tinsel town, Sunny Deol won from Punjab's Gurdaspur, his stepmother and veteran actress Hema Malini is leading by a thumping majority in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura.

Malini is leading by 2,90,023 and Deol won by 82,459 votes. In Punjab, power couple the SAD's Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal won comfortably in Firozpur and Bathinda constituencies.

The stars, however, are not too good for the other famous couple in the fray -- former BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, now fighting on Congress ticket in Patna Sahib, and his wife Poonam Sinha, a debutante on Samajwadi Party ticket from Lucknow. Shatrughan Sinha is trailing by 2,83,116 and Poonam lost to Rajnath Singh who polled over 3.45 lakh votes than her.

In the west, National Congress Party secured the Baramati seat in Maharashtra with party chief Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule winning by 1,55,774 votes. However, Pawar's nephew Parth lost in Maval by a margin of 2,15,913 votes.

The Paswans of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in Bihar are inching closer to the finishing line. While Ram Vilas Paswan's brother Ramchandra Paswan has won from Samastipur, his other bother Pashupati Kumar Paras is almost sure of his victory in Hajipur. The LJP president's son Chirag won in Jamui by 2,41,049 votes.

Down south, taking the lead are late Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi, and grand-nephew Dayanidhi Maran of the DMK. Kanimozhi is leading in Thoothukudi, and Maran in Chennai Central, by 3,43,914 and 3,00,337 respectively.

Also featuring in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections are feuding factions within political families. In UP's Firozabad, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSPL) candidate Shivpal Singh Yadav is losing to his nephew Akshay Yadav with the latter bagging 4,64,432 votes.

Vying for the Malda North seat in West Bengal are cousin sisters -- Trinamool Congress' Mausam Noor and Congress' Isha Khan Choudhury. However, leading in the constituency by 83,281 votes is BJP candidate Khagen Murmu. In Andhra Pradesh's Aruku, daughter V Shruti Devi of the Congress is fighting her father Kishore Chandra Deo of the TDP. But leading in the seat is YSR Congress' Goddeti Madhavi.