BJP heavyweights like Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni, RK Singh and Rajeev Chandrasekhar are among the few outgoing Cabinet ministers who have been unseated in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections. Altogether 15 from the outgoing Council of Ministers lost in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections.

Losses have been particularly hard hitting in the Hindi heartland – that includes Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan; in the East – that include West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand; in South, that includes Kerala and Tamil Nadu; and in Maharashtra in the West.

Big losses in UP

In Uttar Pradesh, six Cabinet Ministers were unseated.

One of the most high-profile defeats was that of Smriti Irani in Amethi, which was breifly a BJP bastion between 2019 and 2024. Irani, who had famously defeated Rahul Gandhi in 2019, lost to Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma by a margin of 1,67,196 votes.

The second high profile exit was that of Ajay Mishra Teni, the outgoing Union Minister of State for Home Affairs. Teni was embroiled in the controversial Lakhimpur Kheri incident of October 2021 - when a vehicle allegedly belonging to Teni mowed down four farmers and a journalist while they had gathered to protest against the now-repealed farm laws. Three others were lynched in the subsequent violence ensued in the area. Teni was defeated by the Samajwadi Party’s Utkarsh Verma by over 34,329 votes.

Mahendra Nath Pandey, the outgoing Union Minister of Heavy Industries also lost his Chandauli seat in Uttar Pradesh. Pandey lost to Birendra Singh of the Samajwadi Party by 21565 votes. Singh secured 42.5 per cent of the votes polled, as against Pandey who secured 40 per cent of the votes.

The BJP’s lackluster performance in UP also led to the unseating of Kaushal Kishore, the outgoing Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs. Kishore lost the Mohanlalganj seat to Samajwadi Party’s RK Chaudhary by 70,292 votes.

In Fatehpur, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, the outgoing Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution, lost Samajwadi Party’s Naresh Chandra Uttam Patel by a margin of 33,199 seats. Jyoti was able to secure 42 per cent of the votes while SP’s Patel secured 45 per cent of the votes polled.

Amongst the other losers from UP was Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan was defeated in the Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat by Samajwadi Party’s Harendra Singh Malik by a margin of over 24,000 votes. Balyan secured 41.35 per cent of the votes polled, as against SP’s Singh who got 43.64 per cent of the votes.

Triangular fight in Barmar

In the other North Indian state of Rajasthan, Kailash Choudhary the outgoing Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare lost in Barmar to Ummeda Ram Beniwal of the Congress.

Choudhary, finished third, trailing by 4.48 lakh votes. He secured 16.99 per cent of the votes polled, while Beniwal of Congress secured 41.74 per cent of the votes.

Barmar witnessed a triangular contest with the outgoing Minister being upstaged by an independent candidate, Ravindra Singh Bhatti, the 26-year-old mass leader and an independent MLA from Sheo Assembly. Bhatti secured 34.74 per cent of the votes polled.

Misses in the South and West

Down south in Kerala, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the outgoing MoS at the Ministry of Electronics and IT, lost to Congress’ Shashi Tharoor in the Thiruvananthapuram seat. The seat witnessed a triangular fight with Congress, BJP and CPI(M) in fray.

In Attingal (Kerala) which also witnessed a triangular fight, V Muraleedharan, the outgoing Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs, was defeated by Congress’ Adoor Prakash. Muraleedharan stood third.

L Murugan, the outgoing Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairy lost to DMK’s A Raja in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris by a substantial margin of 2,40,585 votes.

In Maharashtra, Rao Saheb Danve, the outgoing Minister of State for Railways, lost the Jalna seat to Congress’ Kalyan Vaijnath Rao Kale. Danve lost by over 109,900 votes.

Losses in the East too

In the Eastern states, primarily Jharkhand, the outgoing Union Tribal Affairs Minister, Arjun Munda, faced a crushing defeat in Khunti. He lost to Congress’ Kalicharan Munda by 1,49,675 votes. Kalicharan secured over 54 per cent of the votes polled as against Arjun who secured 39 per cent.

Bihar witnessed a major upset in Arrah with outgoing Cabinet Minister RK Singh losing out to Communist Party of India (Maxist Leninist) (Liberation)’s Sudama Prasad. Singh lost by a margin on 59808 votes even after securing 42.82 per cent votes. Prasad secured 48.28 per cent votes.

West Bengal was another major set-back for the BJP. Two of the outgoing Minister of States lost to Trinamool Congress candidates. Dr Subhash Sarkar, outgoing MoS for Education lost the Bankura seat to Arup Chakraborty by over 32700 votes. Sarkar secured 42 per cent of the votes as against Chakraborty’s 44 per cent.

Nishit Pramanik, the outgoing MoS for Home and Youth Affairs lost the Cooch Behar seat by 39250 votes to Jagdish Chandra Barma Bansunia. The latter secured 48 per cent of the votes against Pramanik’s 44 per cent.

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