Anurag Thakur, set to be dropped from ‘Modi 3.0’, extends his ‘best wishes’ to PM-elect

Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi, BJP MP-elect Anurag Thakur on Sunday extended his 'best wishes' for what will be the former's third successive term in office, and third overall.

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PM-designate Modi will take oath at 7:15 pm in a glittering ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. His council of ministers will be sworn-in after him.

However, Thakur, who held the Sports portfolio in the second Modi-led government, is likely to miss out on a ministerial berth. He was not among NDA MPs who attended a tea meeting at the PM-elect's official residence on Sunday morning.

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“I extend my best wishes and congratulations on his third term. I also extend my heartiest wishes to all his ministers…may they do a wonderful job and take the country forward in the next five years,” he told news agency ANI.

“Many people associated with Mann Ki Baat are here. It is my good fortune that that they have come to my residence. We will go for the oath-taking ceremony from here,” the politician, 49, further stated.

Anurag Thakur won from Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur parliamentary constituency, defeating Satpal Singh Raizada of the Congress party by a margin of 182,897 votes. In doing so, he retained a seat that he first won in a 2008 by-election, and the Lok Sabha elections of 2009, 2014, and 2019.

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Other BJP leaders who were Union ministers in the previous Modi-led government but are set to miss out this time include names such as Smriti Irani, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Meenakshi Lekhi, Ajay Bhatt, General (Retired) VK Singh, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni, John Barla, RK Singh, Nisith Pramanik, Narayan Rane, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Subhas Sarkar, among others.