Smriti Irani to Annamalai: Voters show these 'hate speech makers' the door

Besides a drastic fall in its Lok Sabha seat tally – from 303 in the 2019 polls to 240 in 2024 – the BJP saw the defeat of some of its cabinet ministers and high-profile candidates, mostly those who have been in news for their sharped-edged statements and controversies. Here is a list of a few of them:

Smriti Irani (Amethi)

Smriti Irani, who wrested the Amethi seat, a stronghold of the Gandhi family, from the Congress after defeating Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 polls, faced a massive defeat by Congress’ Kishori Lal Sharma this time. Irani’s loss – by a margin of 1,67,196 votes – is one of the high-profile defeats for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

A bitter critic of the Congress, the Union minister recently commented that the Congress’ decision not to field a Gandhi from the Amethi seat is an indication that it has accepted defeat before the polls.

Since her victory in Amethi, the BJP MP has launched repeated attacks at Rahul, most of them being vitriolic statements shaming the Congress leader for losing his family’s bastion and daring him to defeat her.

In May, after Rahul accepted an invitation to publicly debate with Prime Minister Modi, Irani accused him of not having the “courage to contest against a normal BJP worker in his so-called castle” and asked if he was a prime ministerial candidate of the “INDI alliance” to sit at Modi’s level and debate.

At a recent poll meeting in Amethi, Irani took a jibe at the Congress leader by asking if the microphone that was malfunctioning belonged to a person named Rahul. The quip went viral on social media.

K Annamalai (Coimbatore)

Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, who had led a fierce campaign for his party in the southern state, lost to DMK’s Ganapathy Rajkumar in Coimbatore by a margin of over 1.14 lakh votes.

Infamous for being a political motormouth, Annamalai has raked up not one, but multiple controversies since he took reins of the party in Tamil Nadu.

In September 2023, BJP ally AIADMK severed ties with the saffron party, in the wake of remarks – dubbed as “immature” and “disrespectful” by many – passed by Annamalai on former AIADMK leaders including ex-chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

A massive controversy broke out in September 2023 over Annamalai’s hate speech against former chief minister CN Anna Durai.

At a protest rally in Chennai on September 11, he claimed that Anna Durai had insulted Hindu gods during an event at the Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple in 1956, and was threatened by freedom fighter Muthuramalinga Thevar over the same. Annamalai said Anna Durai had to hide and could leave Madurai only after tendering an apology.

In the thick of election campaigning in May this year, Annamalai raked up a row by calling Jayalalithaa a “Hindutva leader” and stating that the AIADMK “drifted away” from the Hindutva ideology after her demise.

Soon after the BJP drew a blank in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK squarely blamed the former IPS officer for its breakup with the saffron party ahead of the polls. “If Annamalai had controlled his mouth, there would have been a better result. Only one leader is responsible for this massive defeat of everyone. For his inexperience, all parties in Tamil Nadu faced this tragic result. If he had learnt from his predecessors and controlled his tongue, even Delhi leaders wouldn’t be suffering this much. His wrong move made BJP short of a simple majority in Delhi,” said former AIADMK minister R B Udhayakumar.

Dilip Ghosh (Bardhaman-Durgapur)

BJP’s firebrand leader Dilip Ghosh, known for spewing venom at opponents, lost to Congress’ Kirti Azad by a margin of 1,37,981 votes in West Bengal’s Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency.

In March this year, an FIR was filed against Ghosh for questioning Trinamool Congress chief and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s parentage.

“When Didi goes to Goa, she becomes Goa’s daughter, in Tripura, she says I am Tripura’s daughter. Decide who is your father, this is not right,” he had said.

He later apologised for his comments after the Election Commission (EC) issued him a show cause notice.

A month later, he kicked off another row after commenting that Banerjee would be reduced to a “beggar’s state” after the CBI and ED catch strongmen like Shahjahan Sheikh, the TMC strongman accused in the Sandeshkhali mass molestation case.

Lallu Singh (Faizabad)

The BJP, which was positive of once again clinching the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, under which the Ayodhya Ram Temple falls, received a jolt when its sitting MP Lallu Singh lost the polls.

The two-time MP lost to Samajwadi Party’s Awadhesh Prasad by 54,567 votes.

Singh’s defeat is mainly being attributed to a shocking statement he made during a rally in Ayodhya’s Milkipur during poll campaigning.

He had said that the BJP needs two-thirds majority to be able to change the Constitution in a video that went viral on social media

Incidentally, his remark came days after Prime Minister Modi rejected Opposition’s allegations that the BJP intends to alter the Constitution if it returns to power. It also came on the birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar.

While Singh later called it a slip of tongue, the INDIA bloc used it to double down on its attacks on the BJP.

Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’ (Lakhimpur Kheri)

The BJP MP lost in the Lakhimpur Kheri constituency to SP’s Utkarsh Verma ‘Madhur’ by a margin of 25,494 votes.

In September 2021, Mishra, then Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, found himself embroiled in a controversy after his son, Ashish Mishra, allegedly ran his car over farmers protesting against the Centre’s farm laws, leading to the death of eight people.

The dead included four farmers and a journalist and the car was part of Mishra’s convoy.

Ashish was arrested on October 9.

Mishra in December sparked a fresh controversy when he verbally abused reporters on camera and even pounced on a media person when asked about additional charges against his son.

Navneet Rana (Amravati)

BJP candidate from Maharashtra’s Amravati, Navneet Rana, lost to Congress’ Balwant Wankhede by 19,731 votes.

In May, a case was filed against the 38-year-old actor turned politician for violating the Model Code of Conduct by making an incendiary remark at a poll rally.

Rana while campaigning for BJP candidate, Madhavi Latha in Hyderabad on May 9, had referred to AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi’s speech from 2012 in which he had said that if police is removed for 15 minutes, his community would show 100 crore Hindus what it could do.

In response, Rana said, “Akbaruddin said remove police for 15 minutes so they can show what they can do…I say, it may take you 15 minutes but it will take us only 15 seconds.”

She had also told voters that if they voted for Rahul Gandhi or the Congress then their votes would go to Pakistan.

The comments were denounced both by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.

Kompela Madhavi Latha (Hyderabad)

Owaisi, Hyderabad’s sitting MP defeated Latha by a margin of 3.38 lakh votes.

An FIR was filed against Latha after a massive controversy broke out against her viral gesture of ‘shooting an arrow at a mosque’ during a Ram Navami procession in Hyderabad in April.

The gesture, which was translated as communal in nature, left the dominant Muslim population of the Old City miffed with sitting MP Owaisi accusing the BJP of trying to destroy the peace in the city.

While Latha said that an “incomplete video” was being circulated to spread negativity, she later apologised for hurting sentiments with her gesture. In the fourth phase of the voting on May 13, she sparked another row after asking veiled Muslim women voters at a poll booth to reveal their faces to cross-check their identities with their voter ID cards. A case was filed against her.

Rajeev Chandrashekhar (Thiruvananthapuram)

BJP’s Rajeev Chandrashekhar lost the elections in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, paving the way for a fourth consecutive term for Congress’ Shashi Tharoor.

Chandrashekhar, who is the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, had stirred a controversy in October last year after making “divisive” remarks on the IED blast at a prayer meeting in Kerala. Eight people were killed and over 50 were injured in the Kalamaserry blast.

Chandrashekhar in a post on social media, had held Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan responsible for the incident, alleging that the blast was the result of the government’s ‘appeasement politics’.

Alleging that Kerala is more tolerant to radical elements under Vijayan’s rule, he had accused the government of allowing a Hamas operative to address an event organised by a religious group in Malappuram.

A case was filed against him for “making statements that promote enmity between different groups”.

Vijayan had rebutted the allegations by stating that Chandrashekhar’s remarks reflected a larger communal agenda. A case was also filed against the Union minister for his comments.

Pawan Singh (Karakat)

The Bhojpuri singer, who became a controversial figure in the polls not only for his bawdy songs, but also political flip flops, lost the poll to CPI-ML candidate Raja Ram Singh in the Karakat Lok Sabha seat.

Pawan lost by a margin of over 1 lakh votes.

The singer who was initially fielded by the BJP from the Asansol Lok Sabha seat withdrew from the poll race soon after. While he didn’t specify any reason for the withdrawal, his move came after facing backlash from TMC leaders for his songs which they called were “misogynistic” and derogatory towards Bengali women.

Pawan later announced himself as an Independent candidate from the Karakat seat, prompting the BJP to expel him.