Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur ousted from Modi cabinet

BJP leaders and former Union Minister Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur, and Rajeev Chandrasekhar are likely to be omitted from the Modi 3.0 cabinet.

Going by the visual of the meeting Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi held with his likely council of ministers, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, who held home, defence, finance and external affairs ministries respectively in the outgoing government, besides its other senior members such as Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Hardeep Singh Puri will be part of the new government.

One surprise omission seems to be Anurag Thakur, the outgoing information and broadcasting minister who won from Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur constituency again. He was not among the leaders invited to meet Modi. The PM-designate customarily meets new ministers ahead of their swearing-in ceremony.

Outgoing ministers Smriti Irani, who suffered a big defeat in Amethi, and Parshottam Rupala, who won but whose remarks on Rajput community during the polls had triggered a massive row, are also unlikely to find a place in the new government.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who lost to Shashi Tharoor in a close contest, is also likely to be missing from the new government.

However, a big majority of the outgoing ministers are set to continue, according to the visuals of the meeting shared by official sources.