Union Ministers trailing as 'Modi wave' uproots UPA

Over a dozen Union Cabinet ministers are trailing in their respective seats as the Modi wave uprooted ruling Congress-led UPA alliance in most parts of the country.

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju were behind their rivals by significant margins.

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily, Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma, Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot and Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal were the other Congress bigwigs who were trailing in first few rounds of counting.

Among the allies, Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel of NCP, Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah of National Conference and Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh of Rashtriya Lok Dal too were behind their rivals.

The only silver-lining for Congress were Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath, Food Minister KV Thomas and Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia who were ahead in their constituencies.

Raju seems to be the worst performer managing only 2,950 votes out of the above two lakh votes counted in the initial rounds. He was the third behind YSR's Sunil Chalamasetty and TDP's Thota Narsimhan.

Minister of State for Telecom Milind Deora too was trailing from South Mumbai while Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was marginally behind his BJP rival Jitendra Singh in Uddhampur.

Khurshid was a distant fifth in Farrukhabad constituency while Sibal was third in Chandni Chowk constituency in Delhi. Pilot was trailing by more than 1.2 lakh votes in Ajmer behind BJP's Sanwarmal Jat.

Moily was behind BJP's Bache Gowda by 12,000 votes in Chikkballapur in Karnataka. Minister of State for Home RPN Singh and Fertiliser Minister Srikant Jena were also trailing.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar was trailing by 50,000 votes in Sasaram in Bihar.