Bangalore, May 26: Once again stars of the Kannada filmdom have failed to attract voters. Among seven sandalwood actors who contested this time, five, including Union Minister Ambareesh, have lost the poll battle. Ambareesh, a long time Kannada actor and three times Lok Sabha member from Mandya, lost from Srirangapatna Assembly constituency to JD(S) candidate Ramesh Bandisiddegowda.
Saikumar, known as dialogue king, was one among the star campaigners for the BJP. Wherever he went he entertained the audience with his Telugu and Kannada film dialogues. But his dialogues failed to lure voters in Bagepalli. He was pushed to the fourth position.
Ambareesh, Umashri, Shashi Kumar, Saikumar and Kumar Bangarappa
Actor-cum-director Mahendar contested on BJP ticket from Kollegal. He campaigned along with his actress-wife Shruthi. But the artiste couple failed to convert their popularity into votes. Umashree contested from Terdal and lost miserably to BJP candidate Siddu Savadi with a margin of 12,244 votes. Shashikumar, who had once won from Chitradurga lok sabha constituency on JD(U) ticket, contested on Congress ticket from Challakere Assembly constituency and lost the battle with a margin of 289 votes.
In Sorab, where the battle was largely seen to be between Bangarappa's sons Madhu (SP) and Kumara Bangarappa (Cong) and both of them lost to BJP candidate H Halappa.
Jaggesh and B C Patil are the only two actors who have won. Jaggesh had a tough time in bagging the ticket, but didn’t have to fight that hard to win the seat. Another film star to win is B C Patil. He contested on Congress ticket from Hirekeruru successfully.