New Delhi. Outgoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is preparing to take oath for the third consecutive time as the head of the coalition government, on Wednesday chaired a meeting of members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) who unanimously elected him as their leader.
Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader and former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, after attending the meeting, said NDA MPs will hold another meeting on June 7 to formally elect Modi as their leader and after that the alliance leaders will go to the President and hand over their letter of support to him.
Some sources said that the new government could be sworn in over the weekend. They believe that the formalities of government formation should be completed quickly so that there is no atmosphere of uncertainty and the opposition alliance does not get any chance. It is believed that the time of swearing-in will be decided as soon as the BJP and its allies reach a consensus on the distribution of ministries and departments along with other issues.
Apart from Modi and BJP’s Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and J P Nadda, 21 leaders from 16 parties including TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, LJP (R) leader Chirag Paswan, JD (S) leader HD Kumaravami, Jana Sena’s Pawan Kalyan, AGP’s Atul Bora and NCP’s Praful Patel attended the meeting. Janata Dal (United) leader Sanjay Jha, who was present in the meeting, said that the formalities related to the formation of government at the Centre under the leadership of Modi are expected to be completed soon. He said that all parties have faith in Modi’s leadership.
A resolution passed in the meeting said that the NDA government will continue to work to raise the standard of living of the people with all-round development while preserving the heritage of the country. It said, “We are all proud that the NDA fought the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and won. We, all the leaders of the NDA, have unanimously chosen Narendra Modi as our leader.” The resolution also said that people have seen the country developing in every field in the last 10 years due to the welfare policies of the NDA government led by Modi.
The NDA has won 293 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, which is more than the majority figure of 272 in the 543-member House. This has paved the way for Modi to take oath as Prime Minister for the third consecutive time. The BJP may succeed in forming the government, but this time the situation will be different for it because in Modi’s last two terms the party had achieved majority on its own but this time it has remained far from the magic figure. Therefore, to run the government smoothly, it will have to depend on its allies, especially Nitish Kumar and Naidu’s party.
Hosting the meeting, the BJP presented a picture of collective leadership with its allies, with Naidu, Kumar and Shinde seated to Modi’s left, while Nadda, Singh and Shah were on his right. In terms of numbers, Naidu, Kumar and Shinde, in that order, are the three biggest constituents of the NDA after the BJP. Kumar and Naidu’s parties together have the support of 28 MPs but they have dismissed speculation over their future moves. Naidu has reiterated his support to the BJP, as has JD(U)’s Jha.
When asked by a reporter if he is in the NDA, Naidu retorted, “We fought the elections together. Why do you doubt it.” All the leaders present in the meeting congratulated the Prime Minister for his leadership and the progress made by the country under his leadership and appreciated the hard work and efforts of the Prime Minister in nation building. Modi said in the meeting that this is a historic mandate for the third consecutive NDA government. The country had received such a mandate 60 years ago.
His colleagues praised Modi for his clear vision of a ‘developed India’ and stressed that they are eager to work as partners in achieving this goal. They also praised him for his efforts towards poverty alleviation and for making India proud in the world and vowed to continue the good work.