Irani, Gambhir, Prasad among 300 MPs elected for first time to new Lok Sabha

The new Lok Sabha will have 300 MPs who have been elected for the first time to the Lower House, including cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir, Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Smriti Irani, sufi singer Hans Raj Hans and Bengali actresses Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan Ruhi.

The last Lok Sabha, also known as the 16th Lok Sabha, had 314 MPs who were elected for the first time, according to think tank PRS Legislative Research From the outgoing Lok Sabha, as many as 197 MPs have been re-elected, the PRS said.

Irani emerged as a giant-killer after dethroning Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in Amethi by a margin of 55,120 votes. A two-time Rajya Sabha MP, she had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2004 and 2014.

Controversial BJP candidate from Bhopal and Malegaon blast accused, Pragya Thakur, defeated Congress' bigwig Digvijay Singh to register her maiden win in a general election.

Gambhir, who was contesting from East Delhi, trounced Congress' Arvinder Singh Lovely by a margin of over 3.91 lakh.

Prasad, Union minister and Rajya Sabha MP, who was in the fray from Patna Sahib seat in Bihar, defeated sitting MP and Congress candidate Shatrughan Sinha by a margin of over 2.84 lakh votes, registering his first victory in a general election.

In the national capital, where the BJP made a clean sweep of the seven seats, BJP's North West Delhi candidate Hans Raj Hans pipped AAP's Gugan Singh by a huge margin of over 5.55 lakh votes.

But, it wasn't just BJP candidates who scored their first-ever win in the Lok Sabha election. Congress, DMK and TMC candidates also defeated their rivals to secure a berth in Parliament.

In Tamil Nadu, DMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi scripted a win, defeating her BJP rival by over 3.47 lakh votes in Thoothukkudi constituency.

In Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara, Chief Minister Kamal Nath's son Nakul won his first Lok Sabha poll, defeating his BJP rival by 37,536 votes.

In West Bengal's Jadhavpur constituency, actress Mimi Chakraborty scripted a maiden win on a TMC ticket over Anupam Hazra of the BJP by a margin of over 2.95 lakh votes.

Another actress and TMC candidate from Basirhat, Nusrat Jahan Ruhi, trounced Sayantan Basu of the BJP by a margin of over 3.50 lakh.

West Bengal unit chief of the BJP Dilip Ghosh also registered a win over TMC's Manas Ranjan Bhunia by a margin of 88,952 votes.

In Punjab's Gurdaspur, Bollywood actor Sunny Deol defeated Congress heavyweight and sitting MP Sunil Jakhar with a margin of 82,459 votes.

Besides, Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Satydev Pachauri, who had unsuccessfully fought the 2004 election, won the Kanpur seat with a margin of over 1.55 lakh votes, defeating Congress' Sriprakash Jaiswal, who had won over Pachauri in 2004.

BJP's Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Keshari Devi Patel also registered their maiden win in the Lok Sabha election from Allahabad and Phulpur seats, respectively.

Among other winners were LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan's brother Pashupati Kumar Paras who won from reserved seat of Hajipur in north Bihar while BJP's Tejasvi Surya triumphed over his Congress rival in Bangalore South.