The Lok Sabha elections 2024 have concluded, and the results were nothing but a big surprise for the country’s political landscape.
The exit polls had bolstered the BJP’s ambitious “400-par” election slogan, but the Narendra Modi-led NDA alliance failed to secure 300 – bagging 292 seats. The Opposition-led INDI Alliance celebrated an unexpected surge, as it won over 230 seats, far surpassing all predictions.
While many seasoned politicians and popular leaders managed to secure their seats, this election has also been marked by some surprising upsets. From BJP’s Smriti Irani to Congress’ Digvijaya Singh, several prominent figures who were considered invincible found themselves ousted from power.
Here’s a closer look at the big leaders who suffered defeat.
THE BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY
Smriti Irani
After her dramatic victory over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi in 2019, Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani became a prominent face in the BJP. However, this Lok Sabha election, Irani lost to Kishori Lal Sharma, a Gandhi loyalist, by a margin of 1.67 lakh votes.
The Congress leader bagged 5,39,228 votes whereas Irani received 3,72,032 votes. With this victory, Congress won back Amethi which has been the Gandhi family’s bastion for decades.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar
In Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, was defeated by Congress veteran Shashi Tharoor by a margin of over 16,077 votes.
Initially, early trends indicated Chandrasekhar leading the race, but Tharoor eventually surged ahead to secure the Kerala seat with 3,42,078 votes. The MoS managed to get 3,58,155 votes in the constituency down south.
After conceding defeat, Chandrasekhar stated, “We have come very close and have set a record margin and vote share. It shows that the people of Kerala are increasingly supporting the BJP. It is disappointing that I couldn’t win today, but fought a clean campaign. We didn’t use divisiveness like our opposition. Growth of BJP in Kerala is completely expected and will continue.”
Ajay Mishra Teni
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni, who was running for a third term in Parliament from Uttar Pradesh’s Kheri parliamentary seat suffered a defeat to Samajwadi Party’s Utkarsh Verma ‘Madhur’. He lost by 34,329 votes.
Teni came under the spotlight after his son was arrested for allegedly mowing down four farmers in Lakhimpur district during the farm laws protests. Despite the massive backlash, the BJP leader decided to run for elections.
Arjun Munda
In Jharkhand’s Khunti Lok Sabha constituency, Union Tribal Affairs Minister and incumbent MP Arjun Munda suffered a significant defeat to Congress’ Kali Charan Munda by a margin of 1.4 lakh votes. According to the Election Commission data, the BJP leader secured 361,972 votes, while the Congress candidate received 511,647 votes.
Maneka Gandhi
Eight-time MP and BJP leader Maneka Gandhi was unable to retain her seat in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur. According to the Election Commission, Gandhi lost to Samajwadi Party leader Rambhual Nishad by a margin of over 43,000 votes after trailing behind during counting.
Interestingly, since Independence, Sultanpur has witnessed MPs from various parties, with no single party maintaining outright dominance. The Congress has won eight times, the BSP twice, and the BJP four times in this constituency.
K Annamalai
The engineer-turned-IPS officer K Annamalai was fielded by BJP from Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore seat as the party hoped to make electoral gains in the southern state. However, the party’s state president, who made his poll debut this election lost the race to DMK candidate Ganpathy Rajkumar P.
Annamalai, who lost by a margin of over 1 lakh votes, said after his defeat, “I bow down to the people of the Coimbatore Parliamentary constituency and thank the 4.5 Lakh voters who bestowed their faith in NDA and BJP…I assure the loving people of Kovai that we will double our efforts to win your love and mandate in the future!”
R K Singh
The BJP had fielded Minister of Power and Minister of New and Renewable Energy R K Singh from Bihar’s Arrah. However, the Cabinet minister lost to the Communist Party of India’s Sudama Prasad by 59,808 votes.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, R K Singh won against Raju Yadav of CPI(ML)(L), after receiving 52.42 per cent of the votes polled.
Tamilisai Soundararajan
Tamilisai Soundararajan who was fielded by BJP on Tamil Nadu’s Chennai South 3 seat, was beaten by DMK candidate T Sumathy alias Thamizhachi Thangapandian by a margin of over 2,25,945 votes.
The former Tamil Nadu BJP chief managed to secure 2,90,683 votes, whereas her rival secured 5,16,628 votes.
Notably, Soundararajana had resigned as the governor of Telangana and lieutenant governor of Puducherry to return to electoral politics.
Dilip Ghosh
The former West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh suffered an electoral loss to cricketer-turned-candidate of the Trinamool Congress Kirti Azad in the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency.
Ghosh managed to garner 5,82,686 votes but lost by a difference of 1,37,981 votes to his TMC rival.
SS Ahluwalia
The BJP candidate Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia was up against veteran actor-turned-politician and TMC candidate Shatrughan Sinha in West Bengal’s Asansol. Ahluwalia lost with a margin of 59,564 votes to Sinha.
Ahluwalia secured 5,46,081 votes (41.96 per cent) in the constituency, whereas Sinha got 6,05,645 votes (46.53 per cent).
CONGRESS
Anand Sharma
In the race to secure Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra seat, Congress candidate Anand Sharma lost to BJP’s Rajeev Bharadwaj by a margin of over 2,51,895 votes.
Sharma received 3,80,898 votes, whereas his opponent from the saffron party got over 6,32,793 votes.
Kanhaiya Kumar
Congress leader and former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, Kanhaiya Kumar lost his electoral race from the North East Delhi constituency by a margin of 1,38,778 votes against BJP’s Manoj Tiwari.
As per EC, Kanhaiya secured a total of 6,85,673 votes while Tiwari secured 8,24,451 votes.
Raj Babbar
Actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar failed to secure a seat from Haryana’s Gurugram constituency. The Congress leader lost to BJP candidate and Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh by a margin of 75,079 votes.
Singh, who is a descendant of Raja Rao Tula Ram, polled 8,08,336 votes, while Babbar got 7,33,257 votes.
Vikramaditya Singh
Congress’ Vikramaditya Singh was in a face-off with actor-turned-politician and BJP candidate Kangana Ranaut in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi.
Singh, who is the son of former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, lost by a margin of 74,755 votes to the actress who was making her poll debut this election.
Nakul Nath
Former CM Kamal Nath’s son and Congress candidate from MP’s Chindwara, Nakul Nath lost by a huge margin of over one lakh votes to BJP’s Vivek Sahu.
Nakul managed to get 5,31,120 votes in his family’s bastion, whereas Sahu managed to get 6,44,738 votes.
Digvijaya Singh
Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh lost his electoral race in MP’s Rajgarh by a margin of over 1,46,089 votes. Singh was pitted against BJP leader Rodmal Nagar.
The Congress leader got 6,12,654 votes, whereas his rival from the saffron party received over 7,58,743 votes.
Other leaders
Omar Abdullah
National Conference’s Omar Abdullah has conceded defeat to Independent candidate Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, in the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency in North Kashmir.
Abdullah lost to the Rashid by a margin of over 2,04,142 votes. In a social media post, he said it was “time to accept the inevitable” as the voters have spoken.
Mehbooba Mufti
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti conceded defeat from the J&K’s Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat against Mian Altaf of Jammu & Kashmir National Conference. The margin of loss was massive as the former Chief Minister lost by 2,36,730 votes.
“Respecting the verdict of the people I thank my PDP workers & leaders for their hard work & support despite all the odds. My deepest gratitude to the people who voted for me. Winning & losing is part of the game & won’t deter us from our path. Congratulations to Mian sahab for his victory,” Mufti wrote on X.
Prajwal Revanna
Suspended Janata Dal (Secular) leader and joint BJP-JD(S) candidate Prajwal Revanna, arrested in connection with several allegations of sexual abuse, lost to Congress’ Shreyas Gowda Reddy from the Karnataka’s Hassan Lok Sabha constituency.
Revanna secured 6,30,339 votes as compared to Congress’ 6,72,988 and lost by a margin of 42,649 votes.
Mohammed Badurddin Ajmal
All India United Democratic Front chief Mohammed Badurddin Ajmal conceded his first defeat in 15 years from Assam’s Dhubri seat.
Ajmal lost to former state cabinet minister and Congress leader Rakilbul Hussain by a record margin of over 10,12,476 votes.
With input from agencies
Sayli Dhodapkar is currently working as a Sub-Editor at Firstpost Editorial team. see more
