Quicksplained: Why India's new government may have at least 22 new ministers

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) successfully won 293 seats in the recently concluded 2024 Lok Sabha election, crossing the magic number of 272.

The BJP-led alliance will form the new government on Saturday, after Narendra Modi’s oath-taking ceremony as Prime Minister for a record-breaking third consecutive term.

The 73-year-old was unanimously chosen as the leader on Wednesday afternoon, while receiving praise for his “leadership” and “strides our nation has made under him.”

On Thursday, 6 June, the NDA leaders gathered at Modi’s residence to review the poll results and discuss the formation of the new government.

It is believed the new government may comprise of at least 22 new ministers, as the same number of Union Ministers lost seats in general elections this year.

While Nitin Gadkar, Anurag Thakur, Amit Shah, and many others emerged victorious, some prominent names in Modi’s council of ministers lost the battle.

Here’s a quick look at the Union Ministers who lost in the elections.

The losing Ministers in Lok Sabha polls 2024

Smriti Irani

The Union Minister, who had clinched the Amethi Lok Sabha seat after defeating Rahul Gandhi in 2019, lost to Congress candidate and a close aide of the Gandhi family Kishori Lal Sharma, by a huge margin of 1,67,196 votes.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar

The Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology lost Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat to Congress’s Shashi Tharoor by 16,077 votes.

V Muraleedharan

The Union Minister of State for External Affairs lost from Kerala’s Attingal seat by 16,722 votes against Congress MP Adoor Prakash.

Kaushal Kishore

The Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs lost his Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha seat to Samajwadi Party candidate RK Chaudhary by a margin of 70,292 votes.

Mahendra Nath Pandey

The Union Minister lost his Chandauli seat to SP’s Birendra Singh by 21,565 votes. Singh received 474,476 votes.

Ajay Mishra Teni

In Lakhimpur Kheri Lok Sabha seat, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs lost to SP’s Utkarsh Verma by a margin of 34,329 votes.

Subhas Sarkar

The Minister of State for Education was defeated by Trinamool Congress candidate Arup Chakraborty in the Bankura constituency of West Bengal by about 32,778 votes.

Arjun Munda

The Union Tribal Affairs Minister and sitting Khunti MP lost the Jharkhand’s Kunti Lok Sabha seat to Congress’s Kalicharan Munda by 149,675 votes.

Bhagwanth Khuba

In Bidar Lok Sabha seat, the Union Minister was defeated by Karnataka Minister Eshwar Khandre’s son Sagar Khandre.

Kailash Choudhary

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare stood in third position in Rajasthan’s Barmer, with a gap of 448,000 votes from the winning candidate Ummeda Ram Beniwal.

L Murugan

In Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris, the Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying lost the seat to DMK’s A Raja by a margin of 240,585 votes.

Nisith Pramanik

The BJP’s North Bengal face and Union Minister of State for Home lost the Cooch Behar seat to TMC’s Jagadish Chandra Basunia by over 39,000 votes.

Sanjeev Balyan

In Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, the Union Minister lost the seat to SP’s Harendra Singh Malik by a margin of over 24,000 votes.

Kapil Patil

The Minister of State for Panchayati Raj lost to NCP (Sharad Pawar)’s Suresh Gopinath Mhatre in Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi seat.

Raosaheb Danve

In Maharashtra’s Jalna constituency, the Minister of State for Railways was defeated by Congress’s Kalyan Vaijnath.

Bharati Panwar

In Dindori seat, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare was defeated by Bhaskar Bhagare of NCP (Sharad Pawar) by 1.13 lakh votes.

Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti

The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution, lost the UP’s Fatehpur seat.

RK Singh

The Cabinet Minister lost to CPI(ML)’s Sudama Prasad from Bihar’s Arrah constituency.

With inputs from agencies