Narendra Modi took oath for a third consecutive term as Prime Minister, along with 72 ministers, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday.
With this milestone, Narendra Modi (73) equalled the feat of Jawaharlal Nehru, who won three straight terms as India’s first Prime Minister.
While PM Modi has secured another five years in power, this is the first time he will be sharing power after the BJP lost its outright majority in the Lok Sabha after a fiercely fought election.
In keeping with ‘coalition dharma’, the new Council of Ministers will be 72-strong and comprise 11 ministers belonging to NDA partners. The Modi 3.0 team will include 30 Cabinet Ministers, 5 Ministers of State with Independent Charge, and 36 Ministers of State. The portfolios will be announced later.
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The Council of Ministers will have a broad representation of social groups, including 27 Other Backward Classes (OBC), ten Scheduled Castes (SC), five Scheduled Tribes (ST), and five minorities. A record 18 senior Ministers will be heading major ministries. There were also a few notable names missing from the new Cabinet.
The swearing-in ceremony took place on the lawns of Rashtrapati Bhavan, with President Droupadi Murmu administering the oath of office to Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers.
Narendra Modi became the first Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to be elected for a third straight term. This time, however, he will be heading a full-fledged coalition government after the BJP failed to get a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha polls.
BJP chief JP Nadda, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, six-time Sundargarh MP Jual Oram, BJP Gujarat unit chief CR Patil were among the new entrants in PM Modi’s Cabinet. Jitin Prasada, a Cabinet minister in the Uttar Pradesh government, was sworn in as a Minister of State along with former Karnataka minister V Somanna.
Returning faces in Modi 3.0 Cabinet 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, G Kishan Reddy among others.
Among NDA allies, LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, Hindustan Awam Morcha founder Jitan Ram Manjhi, JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan aka Lalan Singh, TDP MP Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu were sworn in as Union ministers of Cabinet rank.
Jitendra Singh, Ramdas Athawale, Nityanand Rai, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Shobha Karandlaje, Shripad Naik, Rao Inderjit Singh, and Krishan Pal Gurjar were back as Ministers of State. Firebrand MP from Telangana Bandi Sanjay took oath as Union minister for the first time. Surprisingly, Ravneet Singh Bittu, who lost from Ludhiana, also got a ministerial berth.
Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena scored a ministerial berth with Buldhana MP Prataprao Jadhav taking oath as MoS. In another win for Chandrababu Naidu’s party, richest MP Dr Pemmasani Chandrasekhar landed a ministerial berth. RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary took oath as MoS, while Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel also made a comeback.
As many as 8,000 guests, including leaders from neighbouring countries and the Indian Ocean Region, like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius, and Seychelles, are attending the oath-taking ceremony.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge was present at Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony, calling it his “constitutional duty” as a Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. However, several opposition party leaders, including those from the Trinamool Congress and the Left, stated that they would not participate despite receiving invitations.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured 293 seats in the recent Lok Sabha elections. The BJP bagged 240 seats, falling short of the majority mark of 272. This marks a significant shift from the party’s decade-long single-party dominance.