In Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram, Rajeev Chandrasekhar lost to Congress' Shashi Tharoor by over 16,077 votes.
As the ruling BJP’s seat tally was massively hit in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, made worse by losses in prestige seats like Ayodhya (part of Faizabad parliamentary constituency) and Amethi, several Union ministers and party heavyweights like Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, and Ajay Mishra Teni, among others, also faced major setbacks, especially in the crucial Hindi heartland.
These defeats have forced the BJP to depend heavily on its NDA partners to form the government. After the Election Commission of India announced the results for 542 out of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, the BJP secured 240 seats, while the Indian National Congress won 99 seats. In 2014 and 2019, the BJP won 282 and 303 seats respectively, achieving a standalone majority.
Ministers Who Are No Longer MPs
Smriti Irani: One of the most high-profile defeats was that of Smriti Irani in Amethi. Irani, who had famously defeated Rahul Gandhi in 2019, lost to Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma by a margin of 167,196 votes.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar: In Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology lost to Congress stalwart Shashi Tharoor by over 16,077 votes.
Ajay Mishra Teni: The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, embroiled 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 crushing defeat in Jharkhand’s Khunti constituency, losing to Congress candidate Kalicharan Munda by 149,675 votes.
Kailash Choudhary: In Rajasthan’s Barmer, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare finished third, trailing by 448,000 votes behind the victorious Ummeda Ram Beniwal of the Congress.
Mahendra Nath Pandey: The Union Minister of Heavy Industries lost his Chandauli seat in Uttar Pradesh.
Kaushal Kishore: The 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’ 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 a margin of 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 a substantial margin of 240,585 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.
