Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took oath on Sunday along with 72 ministers of the new coalition government. Thirty of them are Cabinet Ministers, five independent charge, and 36 Ministers of State. The portfolios will be announced later, reports Daily Sun.
PM Modi, 73, will head a coalition government in his third term, or Modi 3.0, for the first time since he became Prime Minister in 2014 following a huge "Brand Modi" victory after 10 years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule.
He is the second Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to be elected for a third term in a row. PM Modi won the Lok Sabha election from Varanasi by 1.5 lakh votes, a margin much narrower than the 4.6 lakh lead he had over his nearest rival in the 2019 election.
The oath ceremony is being held at the lawns of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, with the weather office forecasting a maximum temperature of 42 degree Celsius in the national capital.
President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath to PM Modi. Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah took oath after him. Nitin Gadkari was the fourth leader to be administered the oath of office by the President. JP Nadda, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, and Manohar Lal Khattar followed in taking oath.
HD Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular), who took oath after Mr Khattar, was the first leader from any of the BJP's allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to take oath. Soon after, Janata Dal (United) leader Lalan Singh, a close aide of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, also took oath.
Sarbananda Sonowal was the first leader from the northeast to take oath on Sunday.
Virendra Kumar, a prominent Scheduled Castes face of the BJP and eight-time MP was inducted into the Narendra Modi government. He won the election from Madhya Pradesh's Tikamgarh reserved seat.
Supporters of leaders who have been called to the stage clapped and cheered loudly, as they saw their leaders walk towards the mic to be administered oath by the President.
Leaders from India's neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean Region including Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, and the Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu attended the event.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
