With just a few hours remaining before the NDA 3.0 government takes shape, key BJP leaders, including Smriti Irani and Anurag Thakur, are confirmed to remain absent from the finalised Cabinet lineup. The nation awaited PM-designate Narendra Modi's oath ceremony for later in the evening.
Thakur who secured a victory in Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur, would not be retained in the Modi 3.0 cabinet. In Modi's second term, Thakur held the sports and information & broadcasting portfolios.
Anurag Thakur, commenting on his exclusion from the party, stated, "Those who got a place are worthy of congratulations. I am a BJP Worker. Being elected as an MP for the fifth time is an honour for me."
He congratulated the new cabinet and expressed confidence that the country would develop and reach new heights.
Smriti Irani, the current Women and Child Development Minister lost her Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh's Amethi to Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who was defeated by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram, was also expected to be missing from the new government.
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With the BJP allocating Cabinet seats to its NDA partners this time, the party aimed to balance continuity and the introduction of new faces as it finalised the list for the swearing-in ceremony.
Senior party leaders such as Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Nirmala Sitharaman, and Mansukh Mandaviya were seen at Modi's tea party held in the morning, a tradition he has followed before the Cabinet formation since 2014.
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