Union ministers, including Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Smriti Irani, failed to secure their seats in the Lok Sabha as election results rolled in on Tuesday.

In all, 19 ministers in the Modi government lost the election.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s final seat tally stood at 240, a significant fall from 2019 when it had clinched 303 seats. The overall tally of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance reached 292 seats, as per Election Commission data.

In 2019, the alliance had won in 353 constituencies.

A party or coalition requires 272 seats in the 543-member Lower House of Parliament to form a government at the Centre.

The Congress won 99 seats, significantly improving its 2019 tally of 52 seats. The Opposition INDIA bloc collectively bagged 232 seats.

Irani, who is the Union minister of women and child development, lost Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi Lok Sabha constituency to veteran Congress leader Kishori Lal Sharma.

Sharma won by a margin of 1.67 lakh votes, having secured 5.39 lakh of the 9.80 lakh votes polled. Irani received 3.72 lakh votes.

The Amethi seat has been a stronghold of the Gandhi family for decades. The seat was held by Rahul Gandhi from 2004 to 2019, when he was defeated by Irani. She was retained by the BJP from the seat this year.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni was defeated by Samajwadi Party leader Utkarsh Verma, by a margin of 34,329 votes in the state’s Kheri constituency.

Others who lost from Uttar Pradesh include Mahendra Nath Pandey, the Union minister of heavy industries. He lost from the Chandauli seat against the Samajwadi Party’s Birendra Singh by a margin of 21,565 votes.

Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore lost from the Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha constituency, while Niranjan Jyoti, who is the Union minister of state for rural development, did not secure a seat in Fatehpur.

Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Union minister of state for agriculture and food processing, was defeated in Muzaffarnagar.

In Jharkhand, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda was defeated in the Khunti constituency by the Congress’ Kalicharan Munda by a margin of 1,49,675 votes.

In Rajasthan, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Kailash Choudhary lost in Barmer.

In Maharashtra, Raosaheb Danve, who is the Union minister of state for railways, lost the Jalna seat. Kapil Patil, Union minister of state for panchayati raj, did not secure a seat in Bhiwandi and minister of state for tribal affairs Bharati Pawar lost from Dindori.

Cabinet minister RK Singh did not manage to clinch a seat from Bihar’s Arrah Lok Sabha constituency.

In Kerala, Chandrasekhar lost to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in a close fight for the Thiruvananthapuram seat. However, Tharoor won with a margin of 16,077 votes, securing 3,58,155 of the total votes counted. The BJP leader lost the seat with 3,42,078 votes.

Chandrasekhar is the Union minister of state for electronics and information technology.

V Muraleedharan, who is the Union minister of state for external affairs and parliamentary affairs, also lost the Attingal seat in the southern state.

Murugan L, the minister of state for information and broadcasting, lost to Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader A Raja from the Nilgiris seat in Tamil Nadu by a margin of 2.40 lakh votes.

In Karnataka, minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers Bhagwant Khuba was defeated from the Bidar Lok Sabha constituency.

In West Bengal, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nisith Pramanik lost the Cooch Behar seat and Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar was defeated in Bankura.

Polling across 542 parliamentary constituencies was held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1.

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