In a significant shift from the sweeping mandates of 2014 and 2019, the BJP faced setbacks in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, forcing the party to rely on its NDA partners to form the government. The Election Commission of India has declared results for 542 out of 543 constituencies, with the BJP securing 240 seats and the Indian National Congress trailing with 99.
Among the prominent BJP leaders who lost their seats are:
- Smriti Irani, who was defeated in Amethi by Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma by a margin of 1,67,196 votes.
- Ajay Mishra Teni, Minister of State for Home Affairs, who lost to the Samajwadi Party’s Utkarsh Verma in Lakhimpur Kheri by over 34,329 votes.
- Arjun Munda, Union Tribal Affairs Minister, who faced a defeat in Jharkhand’s Khunti constituency to Congress candidate Kalicharan Munda by 1,49,675 votes.
- Kailash Choudhary, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, who finished third in Rajasthan’s Barmer, trailing by 4.48 lakh votes behind the Congress’ Ummeda Ram Beniwal.
- Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, who lost in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram to Congress’ Shashi Tharoor by over 16,077 votes.
Additionally, several other BJP ministers, including Mahendra Nath Pandey, Kaushal Kishore, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Sanjeev Balyan, Rao Saheb Danve, RK Singh, V Muraleedharan, L Murugan, Subhas Sarkar, and Nishith Pramanik, also faced defeats in the polls.