Smriti, six other Union mins fail to make the cut

Lucknow: Dubbed as a giant slayer for defeating Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his family pocket borough of Amethi in 2019, Union minister Smriti Irani fell to make it two-in-a-row. She lost Amethi to Gandhi family loyalist KL Sharma by 1.6 lakh votes.
Sharma’s nomination itself had raised several eyebrows. But he managed to snatch victory from Irani despite her continuous focus on the constituency where she even got a house built.
However, even though Rahul chose to contest from his mother’s seat of Rae Bareli this time, Sharma’s decades long association with the constituency along with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s campaign turned the tide against her.
In 2019, Irani had wrested Amethi from Gandhi by a margin of 55,000 votes. While an MP since 2011, she won her first Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and was the youngest minister of the Narendra Modi 2.0 cabinet. She held the portfolios of Women and Child Development, and Minority Affairs.
This year, 11 Union ministers contested from UP but only five, including the PM Narendra Modi from Varanasi and defence minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, managed to save their seats.
In addition to seven ministers losing, what is worrying for BJP is the sharp fall in its victory margins.
PM Modi, who won with a margin of 4.79 lakh in 2019, was given a stiff challenge by Congress state chief Ajay Rai who brought down the difference to just 1.5 lakh this year.
Lucknow, a BJP seat since 1991, pushed Singh to Parliament with a margin of just 70,000 against 3.47 lakh in 2019.
Pankaj Chaudhary, minister of state for finance, retained the Maharajganj seat with a margin of 35,000 votes against 3.4 lakh in 2019 while minister of state for commerce and industry Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal (S) won with 46,000 votes against a margin of 2.32 lakh in 2019.
The only person who bettered on his 2019 performance was minister of state for health SP Singh Baghel who won the Agra seat with a margin of 2.23 lakh.
Ministers who were unable to retain their seats this time, include minister of state for MSME Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma who lost from Jalaun by 51,000 votes; minister of heavy industries Mahendra Nath Pandey who lost from Chandauli by 14,000 votes; minister of state for agriculture Sanjeev Balyan who lost from Muzaffarnagar by 12,000 votes; urban development minister Kaushal Kishore who lost from Mohanlalganj by 84,000 votes and minister of state for rural development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti who lost Fatehpur by 35,000 votes.
Minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni, whose son allegedly mowed down four farmers in Lakhimpur during the farm laws protest in 2021, failed to win a third term, losing by 33,000 votes.