Eight major upsets in the 2024 LS polls and the Union ministers who lost

Not only did the BJP suffer surprise losses across India in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, so did several big names from various parties. These include central ministers, multiple-time MPs, and well-known political leaders who are used to hogging headlines. Here are eight big names who lost the poll in shock defeats, some of them to outright rookies, and all the Union ministers who had to bite the dust.

1. Smriti Irani (BJP), Amethi, Uttar Pradesh

The immensely popular tele “Bahu” of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahi Thi fame rose to political celebrity status in 2019 by scoring an upset win over Congress scion Rahul Gandhi in the Gandhi family bastion of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. This time, life came full circle for Irani, now a Union minister, when she suffered an equally shock defeat in the hands of Kishori Lal Sharma, an unassuming Congress backroom worker who was hardly known to anyone beyond Amethi. But Amethi knew him. And that is what mattered.

Sharma has been working in Amethi for the past 40 years, handpicked by Rajiv Gandhi in 1983 to monitor development work in his constituency. Over all these years, Sharma has continued to work for the Congress in the constituency and it was partly due to his efforts that the Gandhis could hold on to Amethi despite Rajiv’s assassination in 1991.

Later, Sharma started monitoring Rae Bareli as well, the other Gandhi family fortress which has been won by Rahul Gandhi this time after being vacated by Sonia Gandhi earlier this year as she left for Rajya Sabha. While the BJP dismissed him as “Rahul Gandhi’s PA”, Rahul lashed out at the BJP for using such “offensive” words about Sharma in a press conference on Tuesday. “Kishori Lal Sharma has a direct relationship with the people of Amethi and he was always a winning candidate. But the BJP did not understand it,” Rahul summed it up.

2. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress), Baharampur, West Bengal

The only major face of the Congress in West Bengal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, had been synonymous with the Baharampur Lok Sabha constituency for the past 25 years. He won the seat for the first time in 1999 — when the Left ruled over Bengal — and continued his hold over the seat over the next four general elections, his primary opponent changing from the Left to the TMC in the meantime.

Though his vote share had been declining over the past two polls, it was somewhat of a shocker when he lost the seat altogether to former cricketer Yusuf Pathan, who made his political as well as electoral debut for the TMC this time. Ironically, Chowdhury himself had bagged Baharampur in 2009 by unseating three-time MP Pramothes Mukherjee of the RSP, who fought the polls from the seat unsuccessfully until 2014.

Chowdhury, the Leader of the Congress in the 17th Lok Sabha, was making headlines for all the wrong reasons ahead of the polls, his ages-old rivalry with Mamata Banerjee, the immensely popular TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister, spilling out in the open despite the Congress and TMC being partners in the INDIA bloc. The voters made their choice.

3. Maneka Gandhi (BJP), Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh

Coming to the “other” Gandhis, animal rights activist and former minister Maneka Gandhi, who has been a Parliament member since 1996, lost Sultanpur to Samajwadi Party’s Ram Bhual Nishad by more than 43,000 votes.

Maneka Gandhi, who held the Pilibhit Lok Sabha seat from 1996 to 2009 and then again from 2014 to 2019, gave it up for her son Varun Gandhi in 2009 and 2019. In those two years, she successfully contested the Aonla and Sultanpur seats, respectively.

Amid their troubled relationship with the saffron party, Varun was denied any ticket this time while Maneka failed to hold on to Sultanpur in a resurgent SP wave that swept Uttar Pradesh.

4. Omar Abdullah (NC), Baramulla, Jammu and Kashmir

It was the Kashmiri sentiment that emerged victorious in North Kashmir’s Baramulla, which voted in large numbers for jailed Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) leader Abdul Rashid Sheikh or “Engineer Rashid”.

The now Union Territory, which has been fighting against lack of civil liberty and alleged atrocities by central forces for decades, has an obvious sympathy for Engineer Rashid, who is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail under UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) charges. He was arrested by the NIA after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in a case related to alleged terror funding.

In his absence, his young son Abrar Rashid ran a campaign, “jail ka badla vote se” (revenge for imprisonment with votes). And Baramulla voted hoping that making him an MP would ensure his release from jail. Rashid left behind NC vice-president Omar Abdullah and Sajad Lone, the leader of his faction of the People’s Conference, by approximately 2 lakh and 3 lakh votes, respectively.

“Congratulations to Engineer Rashid for his victory in North Kashmir. I don’t believe his victory will hasten his release from prison nor will the people of North Kashmir get the representation they have a right to but the voters have spoken and in a democracy, that’s all that matters,” Abdullah tweeted.

5. Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), Anantnag-Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir

Another shock defeat came in the Valley for PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, who lost from her home turf of Anantnag-Rajouri by 279,270 votes to NC candidate Mian Altaf, an influential Gujjar leader.

Dr Sheikh Showkat, a political analyst and former Kashmir and Central University law department head, summed up Mufti and Abdullah’s losses thus: “Voters of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh have overwhelmingly rejected the stance of BJP+proxies and penalised Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba for their collaboration.”

This was the first Lok Sabha polls in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370.

6. Bhupesh Baghel (Congress), Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh

Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel lost to BJP’s Santosh Pandey by about 45,000 votes from the Rajnandgaon constituency. On the eve of counting day, Baghel had hinted at EVM manipulation. However, an anti-Congress wave has been ongoing in his state and the party lost the Assembly polls last year to the BJP as well. Though Baghel held on to his Patan Assembly constituency in the state polls, the Lok Sabha venture did not work out.

7. Arjun Munda (BJP), Khunti, Jharkhand

Minister of Tribal Affairs and three-time former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda lost the Khunti seat to relatively unknown Congress candidate Kalicharan Munda by a margin of 1.49 lakh votes. Notably, Arjun had won narrowly against Kalicharan in 2019, by a margin of only 1,445 votes. Kalicharan gave credit for his success to the tireless efforts of party workers, the support of INDIA bloc partners, and the trust of the people of Khunti in him. The 56-year-old Arjun Munda has previously held the position of BJP national general secretary.

8. K Annamalai (BJP), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

The BJP’s major hope in Tamil Nadu, state chief K Annamalai, suffered a comprehensive defeat in Coimbatore to DMK’s Ganapathy Rajkumar P by a margin of 118,068 votes. The former IPS officer’s defeat shows that no matter what the saffron party claims, it still has a long way to go before it can make a dent in the southern states.

“I bow down to the people of the Coimbatore Parliamentary constituency & thank the 4.5 Lakh voters who bestowed their faith in NDA & BJP… Finally, I assure the loving people of Kovai that we will double our efforts to win your love & mandate in the future!” he tweeted.

Major defeats faced my Union ministers

Several Union minister lost the elections, most of them in Uttar Pradesh. One of them was two-time BJP MP Ajay Mishra Teni, who lost the Kheri seat to SP’s Utkarsh Verma. MoS for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Kailash Choudhary was defeated by miles in Rajasthan’s Barmer where Congress candidate Ummeda Ram Beniwal emerged victorious.

Another Union MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar lost to Congress stalwart Shashi Tharoor in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram though he did put up a decent fight. He lost by 16,077 votes.

Another MoS Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti was defeated in UP’s Fatehpur, while MoS Rao Saheb Danve lost the Jalna seat in Maharashtra to Congress candidate Kalyan Vaijnath Kao Kale. Cabinet Minister RK Singh lost Bihar’s Arrah to CPI(ML)’s Sudama Prasad.

Yet another MoS, Nishith Pramanik, lost the Cooch Behar seat in West Bengal to TMC’s Jagdish Chandra Basunia. MoS Subhas Sarkar was defeated in Bankura by TMC’s Arup Chakraborty by 32,778 votes.

In UP’s Muzaffarnagar, Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan lost to SP’s Harendra Sinh Malik, while MoS V Muraleedharan lost Kerala’s Attingal. MoS L Murugan lost Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris seat to DMK’s A Raja. Union Minister of Heavy Industries Mahendran Nath Pandey lost the Chandauli seat in UP while MoS Kaushal Kishore lost Mohanlalganj to SP’s RK Chaudhary by 70,292 votes.