37 ministers dropped in Modi's third Term

In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term, 37 ministers have been excluded from the government, including seven with cabinet rank. Notable among these are Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur, and Narayan Rane.

Parshottam Rupala, Arjun Munda, RK Singh, and Mahendra Nath Pandey, who held cabinet positions in the previous government, were also not retained in the Council of Ministers that took oath on Sunday.

All three Ministers with Independent Charge have been retained, but out of 42 ministers of state, 30 have been dropped.

Ministers not retained include VK Singh, Faggansingh Kulaste, Ashwini Choubey, Danve Raosaheb Dadarao, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Sanjeev Balyan, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Subhas Sarkar, Nisith Pramanik, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, and Pratima Bhoumik.

Others not retained are Meenakshi Lekhi, Munjapara Mahendrabhai, Ajay Kumar Mishra, Kailash Choudhary, Kapil Moreshwar Patil, Bharati Pravin Pawar, Kaushal Kishore, Bhagwanth Khubha, and V. Muraleedharan.

Additionally, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, John Barla, Bishweswar Tudu, Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Devusinh Chauhan, Ajay Bhatt, A. Narayanaswamy, Som Parkash, Rameswar Teli, and Darshana Vikram Jardosh did not make it to the new Council of Ministers.

Eighteen of the dropped ministers had lost their elections. L Murugan is the only Minister of State from the previous government who lost the election but has been retained. He remains a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Smriti Irani, a Cabinet Minister in both terms of the Modi government, lost the election in Amethi to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s aide Kishori Lal Sharma by over 1.69 lakh votes. Irani had held the HRD and Textile portfolios in the first term and Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs in the second term.