BJP spokespersons who missed out on ministerial posts

These men and women have been the voice of the party, spelling out the BJP’s official position on various subjects. They, however, could not find a place in the Narendra Modi ministry.

Meenakshi Lekhi

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s national spokesperson, Meenakshi Lekhi has been a regular face on television news channels, aggressively pitching for the party. She, however, failed to make into the Narendra Modi ministry.

Lekhi is a Supreme Court of India lawyer and won the high profile New Delhi parliamentary constituency with over 1.5 lakh votes as a BJP candidate in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party’s lone Muslim Member of Parliament Syed Shahnawaz Hussain lost the Bhagalpur Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar. Shahnawaz was defeated by Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Shailesh Kumar alias Bulo Mandal by a margin of 9,000 votes.

The BJP's national spokesperson is a former cabinet minister. He was elected to the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999 and was appointed minister of state and held various portfolios.

In 2001, he was given independent charge of the ministry of coal and was elevated to the rank of a cabinet minister with civil aviation portfolio, becoming the youngest cabinet minister ever in the Government of India. Later he held the Textiles portfolio as cabinet minister from 2003 to 2004.

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The BJP president’s political secretary Sudhanshu Trivedi was appointed the party’s central spokesperson in March 2013.

The Madhya Pradesh Congress had in February demanded a CBI probe against Trivedi for allegedly masterminding the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) scam including irregularities in medical entrance, medical pre-PG and other recruitment tests.

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Author and senior journalist M J Akbar joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of party president Rajnath Singh ahead of the Lok Sabh elections. Just three days after he joined the party, Akbar was made the party's national spokesperson.  

M J Akbar was a Congress MP from Kishanganj in Bihar between 1989 and 1991 and the party’s spokesperson in 1989 ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.