IN THE MAJOR LEAGUE NOW

So far, the state was their playground. The June 4 verdict has elevated them to play in the nationals

- Prashant Srivastava, Ajay Sukumaran, Dhaval S. Kulkarni, Amarnath K. Menon, Kaushik Deka, Rahul Noronha, Jeemon Jacob, Rohit Parihar and Amitabh Srivastava

THE DEBUTANTS EX-LEGISLATORS

VISVESHWARA HEGDE KAGERI, 62 | BJP | Uttara Kannada, Karnataka

A six-term MLA till his victory run—on since 1994—was halted in 2023 in his picture-pretty Malnad home base of Sirsi; a minister in the BJP’s first government in Karnataka; speaker in 2019. The Havyaka Brahmin law graduate became a comfortable fallback for the BJP when it had to hastily drop its six-term Uttara Kannada MP Anant Hegde after his remarks about “changing the Constitution”.

VASANTRAO CHAVAN, 69 CONGRESS | Nanded, Maharashtra

Sarpanch of his village, Naigaon; two terms in the state legislative council; MLA in 2009…such was the resume of the Chavan picked to fill the giant hole left by another Chavan. In 2019, the BJP’s Pratap Patil Chikhalikar had delivered a shock defeat to Ashok Chavan in his very fortress—the chance of a revenge match evaporated when the ex-CM migrated to the BJP. The new Chavan was meant only to put up a semblance of a fight against Chikhalikar. But the buzzphrase ‘Lokanni nivadnuk hatat ghetliaahe (The people have taken the elections into their hands)’ lit up Nanded, and the tide turned.

BALWANT WANKHADE, 56 | CONGRESS | Amravati, Maharashtra

Going up against the feisty Navneet Kaur Rana isn’t a prospect anyone would harbour casually. The Congress’s surprise pick not only survived, he weighed in at 19,731 votes more than the actress-MP with the whiplash oratory. Wan khade had a long stint in the RPI (Gavai) and came up via the slow grind, but for the big leap, he had to join the Congress. The assembly opened its gates in 2019, and now the LS has too.

AMARINDER SINGH RAJA WARRING, 46 | CONGRESS | Ludhiana, Punjab