Modi wave wipes out UPA Cabinet: Out of the 16 Cabinet ministers who contested the Lok Sabha polls, 13 lost


It was a complete washout for ministers of the UPA government, with most members of the Union Cabinet being routed as the Congress recorded its worst defeat in Lok Sabha polls.



More than a dozen ministers, including seniors like Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Law Minister Kapil Sibal and External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, lost by significant margins. While Sibal stood third in his constituency, Khurshid was a distant fifth.



Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma and Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot were other Congress bigwigs who lost.



Fertiliser Minister Srikant Jena and HRD Minister M.M. Pallam Raju too failed to retain their seats. Pilot stood second and lost by a margin of over 1.7 lakh votes, while Jena, Raju and Verma could not even manage to hold on to the second position.



Even ministers from the Congress' allies, like Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel of NCP, Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah of National Conference and Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh of Rashtriya Lok Dal, faced defeat.



It wasn't just the Cabinet ministers as even the younger lot of ministers fared poorly. Minister of State for Home RPN Singh, MoS for Telecom Milind Deora, MoS for Defence Jitendra Singh and MoS for HRD Jitin Prasada also lost.



With the young brigade considered close to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi losing their seats, this will be a major setback for Congress's future plans.



There were other senior ministers in the UPA government, like Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Rural Affairs Minister Jairam Ramesh and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who did not even contest the election.



Nearly 90 per cent of the outgoing ministers in the Cabinet either did not contest or lost their seats. This is probably the first time when outgoing ministers faced such defeats, adding to the embarrassment of the Congress and indicating that the mandate has been a complete rejection of the party.



Another significant loss for the Congress was that of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.



The only silver lining for the Congress were wins by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath, Food Minister K.V. Thomas, Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily and Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge. In fact, Moily initially trailed but managed to scrape through with a slender margin of 9,520 votes.



Congress sources said the reason for this debacle was a huge disconnect between party workers and ministers. Despite party chief Sonia Gandhi urging Cabinet members to address this issue, the ministers failed to work closely with workers on the ground.





SPG moves in to guard NaMo

Within hours of the election results paving the way for Narendra Modi to become the prime minister, the elite Special Protection Group (SPG) moved in to guard the senior BJP leader. As Modi addressed his first public rally in Vadodra after getting the mandate, he was surrounded by SPG personnel.

Sources said an advance team would make security arrangements for Modi's wife and mother, who do not stay with him. Since the SPG is tasked to provide security to the PM and his wife, the force has already started making arrangements.



The SPG reviewed the security of both his wife Jashodaben and mother Hiraba, who lives in Unjha town of north Gujarat and Gandhinagar, respectively.



Modi, who faces serious threats, was guarded by NSG commandos and a special team of Gujarat Police. Now, his security will be taken over by the SPG. The force of over 3,000 is a specialised unit created to provide security to the PM, former PMs and their families.

The SPG is coordinating with Delhi Police for sanitising routes in the capital as Modi is scheduled to move to BJP headquarters at Ashoka Road on Saturday. Delhi Police has issued an advisory asking people to stay away from routes that will be used by Modi.







