Former Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar Says Goodbye To Public Service, Then A Correction

Former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar bowed out of his "18 year stint of public service" today. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he said he would continue to work for the party as a leader. The post was later deleted, with the minister explaining it has created some confusion about his "future political work".

"Today curtains down on my 18 year stint of public service , of which 3 years i had the privilege to serve with PM @narendramodi ji's TeamModi2.0. I certainly didnt intend to end my 18 years of public service, as a candidate who lost an Election, but thats how its turned out," the initial post read.

His new post explained the confusion:

Mr Chandrasekhar, who contested from Thiruvananthapuram, failed to unseat Congress's three-time MP Shashi Tharoor in a very tight race. Mr Tharoor won by 16,077 votes after trailing Mr Chandrasekhar for part of the day.

Mr Tharoor responded to the earlier post of Mr Chandrasekhar, saying the former minster is young enough to take "another crack" at it.

"Elective office is only one path (and you are young enough to have another crack at that too!) All the best for the future,' he added.

Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 71 ministers took oath this evening at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, 30 of them were part of the cabinet, five were Ministers of State with Independent Charge and 36 were Ministers of State.

The Council of ministers represents 24 states and all social groups -- 27 of them belong to Other Backward Classes, 10 to Scheduled Castes, five to Scheduled Tribes, 5 are from minority communities.