Anurag Thakur to Ravi Shankar Prasad: heavyweights who won Lok Sabha polls but lost Cabinet posts

The oath-taking ceremony of Modi Cabinet 3.0 took place on Sunday. The oath ceremony was filled with shock and surprise as several ministers who were part of the Narendra Modi-led Cabinet during the second term were dropped from the new NDA government.

This includes the names of several heavyweights like Anurag Thakur, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Narayan Rane, and Parshottam Rupala.

Anurag Thakur

Anurag Thakur won the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh. This was his 5th Lok Sabha win. Thakur served as Minister of Sports, Youth Affairs and Minister of Information and Broadcasting in Modi government 2.0. He also served as Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs earlier.

According to reports, the reintroduction of JP Nadda to the Cabinet led to Thakur's exclusion. The saffron party reportedly did not want two ministers from Himachal.

Ravi Shankar Prasad

Veteran BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, won from Bihar's Patna Sahib. He has been an MP since 2000, and served as Union Minister on several occasions. In 2014, under the first Modi government at the Centre, he was appointed Minister of Law and Justice and Minister for Communications and Information Technology.

Later, he took charge of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. In 2021, he once again held the Communications portfolio.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy

Rajiv Pratap Rudy is a five-time Lok Sabha MP and he get a Ministerial berth despite winning Bihar's Saran seat thrice in a row. He has served as the Minister of State for Commerce, Trade & Industry and Aviation Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government.

In 2014, he became the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in the Modi-led government. He also shared the Parliamentary Affairs department jointly with Minister of State, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

Narayan Rane

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane was excluded from the Cabinet, even though he won from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg. In the second Modi government, he served as Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

Parshottam Rupala

Parshottam Rupala is a veteran BJP leader, and served as Minister in the first and second Modi governments. This time, he did not get a Cabinet portfolio despite scoring a massive victory in Gujarat's Rajkot.

He served as a Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy in Modi government 2.0.

Also watch: Modi 3.0 to hold first cabinet meeting at 5PM today