- | 12:30 pm
Modi takes oath as PM for third term, plans first cabinet meet today
Politically, Modi's third term will look different from earlier as he will now have to rely on allies for support
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday took oath for a third straight term as the head of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government after his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to secure a majority on its own in the recently concluded general election.
At a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, 71 ministers, along with Modi, were administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Droupadi Murmu.
Those who took oath included 30 cabinet ministers, five ministers of state with independent charge, and 36 ministers of state.
The key people in Modi’s third term include Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, S Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Pralhad Joshi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Kiren Rijiju, Dharmendra Pradhan, Sarbananda Sonowal, Bhupender Yadav, Giriraj Singh, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and G Kishan Reddy among others.
BJP president J.P. Nadda, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, and BJP Gujarat unit chief CR Patil were also sworn in as cabinet ministers.
Among allies, LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, Hindustan Awam Morcha (Secular) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi, JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan aka Lalan Singh, and TDP MP Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu also took oath as cabinet ministers.
Modi will hold the first cabinet meeting of his government on Monday and is expected to allot portfolios to ministers.
Leaders of neighboring countries and those in the Indian Ocean Region, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius, and Seychelles, were among the 8,000 guests who attended the swearing-in ceremony.
The leaders of the regional grouping SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) were invited for Modi’s first swearing-in as the prime minister in 2014.
In 2019, the leaders of the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) countries attended the swearing-in ceremony.
Politically, Modi’s third term will look different from the previous decade as he will have to rely on allies for support. Modi’s BJP secured 240 seats in a 543-member house, falling considerably short of the majority mark of 272.
The opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA, bloc said that the election results were a moral victory as the government will now face stronger resistance in and outside the Parliament.
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