In a surprising turn of events, several BJP heavyweights, including Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, and Ajay Mishra Teni, were unseated in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
These significant losses, particularly in the Hindi heartland, have compelled the BJP to rely heavily on its NDA partners to form the government. This scenario contrasts sharply with the decisive mandates of 2014 and 2019, when the BJP secured 282 and 303 seats respectively, achieving a majority on its own.
Those who lost
Smriti Irani: Among the most high-profile defeats was that of Smriti Irani in Amethi. Irani, who had famously ousted Rahul Gandhi in 2019, lost to Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma by a margin of 1,67,196 votes, ending the BJP’s brief hold over Amethi.
Ajay Mishra Teni: The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, involved in the controversial Lakhimpur Kheri incident, was defeated by the Samajwadi Party’s Utkarsh Verma by over 34,329 votes.
Arjun Munda: The Union Tribal Affairs Minister faced a severe defeat in Jharkhand’s Khunti constituency, losing to Congress candidate Kalicharan Munda by 1,49,675 votes.
Kailash Choudhary: In Rajasthan’s Barmer, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Kailash Choudhary, finished third, trailing by 4.48 lakh votes behind Congress’s Ummeda Ram Beniwal.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar: In Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, lost to Congress stalwart Shashi Tharoor by over 16,077 votes.
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Mahendra Nath Pandey: The Union Minister of Heavy Industries lost his Chandauli seat in Uttar Pradesh.
Kaushal Kishore: Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs lost to Samajwadi Party’s RK Chaudhary by 70,292 votes in Mohanlalganj.
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti: The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution, lost in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur.
Rao Saheb Danve: The Minister of State for Railways lost the Jalna seat in Maharashtra to Congress’s Kalyan Vaijnath Rao Kale.
RK Singh: The Cabinet Minister lost to CPI(ML)’s Sudama Prasad in Bihar’s Arrah.
Sanjeev Balyan: The Union Minister was defeated in the Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat by Samajwadi Party’s Harendra Singh Malik by over 24,000 votes.
V Muraleedharan: The Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs was defeated in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram.
L Murugan: The Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying lost to DMK’s A Raja in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris by 2,40,585 votes.
Nishith Pramanik: The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs lost the Cooch Behar seat in West Bengal to TMC’s Jagadish Chandra Basunia by over 39,000 votes.
Subhas Sarkar: The Minister of State for Education was defeated by Trinamool Congress candidate Arup Chakraborty in the Bankura Lok Sabha seat of West Bengal by a margin of 32,778 votes.
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