New Delhi. After the victory of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 18th Lok Sabha elections, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Narendra Modi took oath as the Prime Minister of India for the third consecutive time on Sunday. President Draupadi Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to him at a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan here. With this, Modi equaled the record of the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of becoming Prime Minister three times in a row.
Along with 73-year-old Modi, who took oath in the name of God, senior BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar were sworn in as Cabinet ministers, indicating the prime minister’s emphasis on continuity and experience as most of the sworn-in leaders were holding key ministries in his second term as well.
Party president J P Nadda has returned to the cabinet after five years, while former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar are new faces in the Modi cabinet.
BJP leaders Piyush Goyal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupendra Yadav also took oath as cabinet ministers. All of them were earlier in the Rajya Sabha, but have now been elected to the Lok Sabha. Former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Ashwini Vaishnav, Virendra Kumar, Prahlad Joshi, Giriraj Singh and Jual Oraon also took oath as ministers. President Draupadi Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to all.
Modi became the Prime Minister of the country for the first time after the victory of BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. After this, he became the Prime Minister for the second consecutive time after winning the 17th Lok Sabha elections with a huge majority. Nehru is the longest serving Indian Prime Minister since the country’s independence in 1947. He died on 27 May 1964 and he was still the Prime Minister of the country at that time. He was elected Prime Minister for the first time after winning the first general election held in the year 1952. After this, Congress also won the general elections of 1957 and 1962 and Nehru again became the Prime Minister of the country.
BJP has not been able to get absolute majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It has got 240 seats. However, the BJP-led NDA crossed the majority mark with 293 seats. After this, in the NDA meeting, Modi was recently elected the leader of the BJP and NDA parliamentary party. After being elected leader, Modi went to Rashtrapati Bhavan and met Draupadi Murmu and staked claim to form the government.
Apart from senior BJP leaders, those who took oath include many prominent leaders of NDA constituent parties including Janata Dal (Secular)’s HD Kumaraswamy, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas)’s Chirag Paswan, JD (U)’s Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Ramnath Thakur, TDP’s Ramamohan Reddy, HAM (Secular) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi, Apna Dal (S)’s Anupriya Patel. Many top leaders of the country and abroad also attended the swearing-in ceremony. Congress President and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge was also present on the occasion, although many opposition leaders did not attend the ceremony.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, TDP president Chandrababu Naidu and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar were also present on the occasion. Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Rajinikanth, industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani were among those who attended the swearing-in ceremony.
Modi has not received the mandate in his third term like he did in the previous two terms. In this Lok Sabha election, BJP failed to get a majority on its own. Before the election, BJP had given the slogan of crossing four hundred, but it could not even cross the figure of three hundred with its alliance partners.
In this Lok Sabha election, the Congress and ‘India’ alliance performed relatively better and succeeded in stopping the BJP’s chariot in many Hindi belt areas including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. This was the reason that after the results, the opposition parties termed the election results as Modi’s ‘moral defeat’. Congress got success in 99 seats in this election.
However, it is the result of the BJP’s huge political presence that it has emerged as the largest party for the third consecutive Lok Sabha election by securing 240 seats. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has won 293 seats. Prime Minister Modi has termed it as the biggest success of any pre-poll alliance.
Many top leaders from India’s neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean region, including Maldives President Mohammad Muizzu, Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, were present at the swearing-in ceremony. Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jagannath, his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay, Bangladesh President Sheikh Hasina and Seychelles Vice President Ahmed Afeef also attended the swearing-in ceremony. Muizzu’s visit is considered very important among foreign leaders, as it has taken place at a time of ongoing tension in relations between India and Maldives.
After attending the swearing-in ceremony, all the leaders will also attend the banquet hosted by President Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Leaders of the regional grouping SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries had attended Modi’s first swearing-in ceremony when he took over as prime minister after the BJP’s landslide electoral victory.
When Modi became the Prime Minister for the second consecutive time in 2019, the leaders of BIMSTEC countries attended his swearing-in ceremony. Apart from political leaders and eminent personalities from various walks of life, members of the transgender community as well as sanitation workers and labourers also attended the swearing-in ceremony of Modi and the new Council of Ministers. Around 9,000 people were present in the courtyard of Rashtrapati Bhavan for this grand event.