New Delhi: The BJP has won 240 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a notable decrease from its previous tallies in 2014 and 2019. This shift has compelled the party to rely on its NDA partners to form the government. The Indian National Congress follows with 99 seats, as declared by the Election Commission of India, which has announced results for 542 out of the 543 constituencies.
Key BJP Figures Unseated in 2024 Lok Sabha Elections
Prominent BJP leaders, including Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, and Ajay Mishra Teni, faced significant defeats in the 2024 elections. Smriti Irani, who famously unseated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi in 2019, lost to Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma by 1,67,196 votes. This marked a significant shift in Amethi, which had briefly turned into a BJP stronghold under Irani’s tenure.
Ajay Mishra Teni, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, was defeated by the Samajwadi Party’s Utkarsh Verma in the Lakhimpur Kheri constituency by over 34,329 votes. Arjun Munda, the Union Tribal Affairs Minister, lost to Congress candidate Kalicharan Munda in Jharkhand’s Khunti constituency by 1,49,675 votes.
Kailash Choudhary, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, finished third in Rajasthan’s Barmer, trailing by 4.48 lakh votes behind Congress’s Ummeda Ram Beniwal. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, was defeated by Congress stalwart Shashi Tharoor in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram by over 16,077 votes.
BJP faced further setbacks with the losses of several other ministers:
•Mahendra Nath Pandey: The Union Minister of Heavy Industries lost his seat in Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh.
•Kaushal Kishore: The Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs was defeated by Samajwadi Party’s RK Chaudhary in Mohanlalganj, Uttar Pradesh by 70,292 votes.
•Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti: The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution lost in UP’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 Muzaffarnagar 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 lost 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 West Bengal’s Bankura by 32,778 votes.
These losses, particularly in the Hindi heartland, have significantly impacted the BJP’s ability to secure a majority on its own, contrasting sharply with the sweeping mandates of 2014 and 2019, where the party secured 282 and 303 seats respectively.
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