Renowned multi-lingual actor Prakash Raj lost the Lok Sabha election as an Independent candidate from Bengaluru Central seat in Karnataka. Prakash Raj, who has always been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, contested against BJP's incumbent MP PC Mohan and Congress nominee Rizwan Arshad. While this is the second time that Rizwan Arshad and PC Mohan had a face-off in the same constituency, it's the first time for Raj to have contested for the Lok Sabha polls that too as an independent candidate since he did not wish to join any party. Catch all the LIVE election updates for General Elections 2019 here. 

The actor-turned-politician has only got around 28906 votes in the constituency while BJP’s PC Mohan (that was leading from the start) won with 6,02,853 followed by Congress’s Rizwan Arshad, who scored 5,31,885 votes. Previously in 2014, when Mohan had contested, he had defeated Arshad by a margin of 1.37 lakh votes. Speaking of Prakash Raj, earlier in the day, when he learnt that he was trailing at number three behind the BJP and the Congress, the actor reportedly left the counting centre midway.

Raj, then, took to the micro-blogging site to tweet that the poll result was "a SOLID SLAP on my face." He wrote on Twitter, "a SOLID SLAP on my face ..as More ABUSE..TROLL..and HUMILIATION come my way..I WILL STAND MY GROUND ..My RESOLVE to FIGHT for SECULAR INDIA will continue..A TOUGH JOURNEY AHEAD HAS JUST BEGUN ..THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO WERE WITH ME IN THIS JOURNEY. .... JAI HIND"

Check Out Prakash Raj's Tweet Here:

However, despite having no backing from either of the parties, Prakash Raj, who has been vocally fighting PM Modi and his party, was being seen as a challenge for the Congress and BJP candidates.

Undoubtedly, Prakash Raj is one of the most respected and dependable actors in South cinema. During his eventful career, the actor has impressed movie buffs with his brilliant performances and of course, his effective screen presence like no other actor.

On the career front, the 54-year-old actor-turned-politician was last seen in the recently released Mahesh Babu starrer Maharshi. Besides Mahesh Babu and Prakash Raj, the film also featured Allari Naresh and Pooja Hegde in pivotal roles. The film turned out to be a big blockbuster hit at the box office.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 23, 2019 07:04 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).