New Delhi: If success came anyone's way, it surely was the former chief ministers, as 20 out of 24 who contested tasted victory in elections for the 15th Lok Sabha.
In Jharkhand and Karnataka, four ex-chief ministers from each of the state made it to Parliament this time.
Shibu Soren, Babulal Marandi, Arjun Munda and Madhu Koda emerged as winners from Jharkhand whereas H D Kumaraswamy, N Verappa Moiley, N Dharam Singh and H D Deve Gowda won from Karnataka.
Former chief minister of Bihar Ramsundar Das also won by defeating political heavyweight and Cabinet minister Ram Vilas Paswan in his pocket borough of Hajipur.
Lalu Prasad Yadav had a mixed experience as he could win only one of the two seats he contested. While RJD leader bagged the Saran Lok Sabha seat, he failed to cast spell in Patilputra.
Former chief minister of Delhi Sushma Swaraj won from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh while Veer Bhadra Singh of Himachal Pradesh won from Mandi, Jammu and Kashmir former CM Farooq Abdullah bagged the Srinagar seat.
In Haryana, former chief minister Bhajan Lal defeated his namesake in Sirsa while in UP Rajnath Singh won from Ghaziabad, Kalyan Singh won from Etah and Mulayam Singh took the Mainpuri route to reach the Lok Sabha.