Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Meet India's serial poll ‘losers’ who contested against AB Vajpayee, Hema Malini, Jayalalitha

livemint.com:

K Padmarajan, proudly calls himself the ‘election king’. Hailing from Tamil Nadu, Padmarajan is, perhaps, the only candidate in poll fray in Lok Sabha Elections 2024 , who has been urging people to not choose him. Why? Because, he wants to retain his tag of being the "most unsuccessful candidate", a feat also registered in the Limca Book of Records.

The 65-year-old tyre repair shop owner's name features in the Guinness Book of World Records for candidate with most contested elections. He says he has lost ₹80 lakh so far in security deposits which gets forfeited every time he loses an election besides expenses for filing nomination amid fanfare. Also Read: Meet 'Election king' and India's most unsuccessful candidate; filed nomination for 227th time Padmarajan has filed his nomination for the Lok Sabha elections from Thrissur in Kerala and Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu.

This will be his 239th attempt at the losing streak "I began fighting elections in 1988 from my home town of Mettur, located in Tamil Nadu. I have contested 238 elections so far including against former Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee, PV Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh. This will be my 239th attempt.

I pick a unique battle every time," Padmarajan told news agency PTI. "I ask people to not vote for me, I don't want the votes but I want to continue to hold the tag of most unsuccessful candidate. I don't campaign but when I go for filing nomination, I do that in a grand way." Padmarajan has stood against political stalwarts in the past.