After days of hectic negotiations, the day is here. Modi Sarkar 3.0 will take its oath of office today at the swearing-in ceremony scheduled to take place at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi at 7.15 pm.

As the clock winds down to the big hour, there are some very big names that haven’t been able to find their way on to probable list of ministers who shall be sworn in today. Notably, they weren’t even invited to the tea meeting being hosted by Narendra Modi at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg.

The names likely to be dropped from
Modi 3.0
include those who were defeated in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Others have been dumped owing to coalition pressures and to accommodate faces from the BJP’s allies — the Telugu Desam Party, the Janata Dal-United, the Janata Dal-Secular and even the Rashtriya Lok Dal.

Let’s take a closer look at the names who have most likely been dropped from the new Modi Cabinet.

Smriti Irani

She’s been a known face in the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre. In 2014, when Narendra Modi secured his first win,
Smriti Irani
was sworn in as one of the Council of Ministers and then handed over the human resource development ministry.

Later, in 2019, after securing a huge win against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, she was made Minister of Women and Child Development and later given charge of the minority affairs ministry.

However, this time around, it looks like there is no place for Smriti Irani. She was handed a bruising defeat in Amethi after Congress’
Kishori Lal Sharma
, a loyal aide of the Gandhi family, triumphed over Irani by a margin of over 1.6 lakh votes.

Following her loss, she had said that she would be forever grateful to people who supported her in victory and loss.

However, it doesn’t seem like this will be the end of the road for Irani. According to some insiders in the BJP, she may be accommodated in the Rajya Sabha as she was vocal on government policies and handled her ministry well.

Anurag Thakur

If we go by the leaders who have been invited by Modi for tea before the swearing-in ceremony, then it seems that Anurag Thakur has been dropped from the Council of Ministers.

Serving as the information and broadcasting minister in the previous government, Thakur was not seen at the Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi’s interaction with NDA leaders.

This comes as a bit of a surprise as Thakur won from Hamirpur with a margin of over 1.8 lakh votes. This was Thakur’s fifth consecutive win from the constituency — against Congress’ Satpal Raizada.

However, a BJP insider told The Mint, “This is the first Cabinet swearing-in, though. We will have more ministers inducted in the Modi 3.0.”

Rajeev Chandrasekhar

After his loss in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency to Shashi Tharoor, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, has also most likely been dropped from the Modi government.

He was absent from the meet that Modi held hours before the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

RK Singh

It seems that RK Singh, the former Union Power Minister, has also been dropped from the new Modi Cabinet. This comes after Singh lost to Sudama Prasad of CPI(ML)L by around 60,000 votes from the Arrah constituency.

In Modi 3.0, it is being reported that the power ministry will most likely go to the TDP or the JD(U) and hence, Singh has been dropped.

Purshottam Rupala

Purshottam Rupala, who was given the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying in the Cabinet reshuffle of 2021, finds no place in the new government formation. Despite winning the Rajkot seat in Gujarat with a margin of 4,84,260 votes, the BJP it appears is dropping him from the Modi 3.0 Cabinet.

This could be because of the controversy he stirred during the election campaign when he remarked that erstwhile ‘maharajas’ (Kshatriya kings) had succumbed to foreign rulers like the British and forged family bonds with them. His speech, which went viral on social media, offended the Kshatriya in Saurashtra and parts of north Gujarat with significant hold of different castes of the erstwhile ruling class.

After the initial protests, the Union minister had apologised, but it seems that the damage has been done.

Narayan Rane

A veteran Maharashtra leader, Narayan Rane has also been most likely dropped from the new government. In Modi 2.0, Rane was the micro, small, and medium enterprises minister.

Notably, Rane is another name who has been dropped despite winning his constituency. He won the Lok Sabha election from Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg by securing 4,48,514 votes compared to the 4,00,656 votes that Shiv Sena(UBT) leader Vinayak Raut bagged.

Modi Cabinet 3.0

While there have been some exclusions, a lot of BJP leaders have been retained in the new government. Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, Nitin Gadkari, Mansukh Mandaviya, Piyush Goyal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhupendra Yadav, Prahlad Joshi, Kiren Rijiju, CR Paatil, L Murugan, Hardeep Puri, ML Khattar, Shivraj Chouhan, Gajendra Shekhawat, Suresh Gopi, and Jitin Prasada are most likely to be sworn in as ministers today.

Besides these, HD Kumaraswamy, Jayant Chaudhary, Pratap Jadhav, Ram Mohan Naidu, Sudesh Mahato, and Lallan Singh from among the BJP allies will most likely be sworn in today.

With inputs from agencies

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Modi 3.0: Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur… The ministers who have been dropped