India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi took oath for his third successive term in a stellar ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan (official Presidential Residence) on the evening of 9 June.
The swearing-in ceremony started at 7.15 pm local time with President Droupadi Murmu administering the oath of office to Modi and his council of ministers. Seventy-two ministers were sworn in.
More than 9,000 guests attended the event, marked by the presence of distinguished guests from India’s neighbouring states.
‘Neighbourhood First’
Leaders from seven countries from South Asia and the Indian Ocean region attended the grand ceremony.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was among the first premiers to arrive in New Delhi for the event, marking the special bond that Delhi and Dhaka continue to share.
Among other foreign dignitaries, Nepal PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, Bhutan PM Tshering Tobgay, Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Mauritius PM Pravind Jugnauth, Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, and Seychelles Vice-President Ahmed Afif attended the ceremony.
“The visit of the leaders to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his third consecutive term is in keeping with the highest priority accorded by India to its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy and ‘SAGAR’ vision,” Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
SAGAR is the “Security and Growth for all in the Region” policy framework under which India has been cooperating with the countries of the Indian Ocean region.
In 2014, leaders of regional grouping SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) had attended Modi’s first swearing-in ceremony, while in 2019, for the second swearing-in of PM Modi, leaders of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) countries were present.
A special banquet was hosted by President Murmu after the event, showcasing rich cuisine and specialty of the kitchen of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Special invitees
Asia’s first female loco pilot, Surekha Yadav, was also invited to the oath-taking ceremony, among 10 other loco pilots, who operate the superfast and indigenous Vande Bharat trains. Yadav is the first woman loco pilot of the semi-high-speed Vande Bharat Express.
Additionally, sanitation workers, transgender staff, and labourers who contributed to the Central Vista project were also invited to the ceremony as guests.
Rat-hole miners who assisted in rescuing 41 trapped construction workers in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi collapsed tunnel last year also attended the event.
Several distinguished religious leaders, lawyers, doctors, artists, cultural performers, and influencers were also present at the oath-taking ceremony. Participants acknowledged by PM Modi in ‘Mann Ki Baat’, along with Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri awardees, were also in attendance.
New Cabinet
A whopping 72 ministers took oath as part of the new Cabinet.
Sixty of these are ministers from PM Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and 12 are ministers from the allies of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition.
Here is the full list of the ministers in the order in which they took oath at the event:
- Narendra Modi, BJP
- Rajnath Singh, BJP
- Amit Shah, BJP
- Nitin Gadkari, BJP
- JP Nadda, BJP
- Shivraj Singh Chauhan, BJP
- Nirmala Sitharaman, BJP
- S Jaishankar, BJP
- Manohar Lal, BJP
- HD Kumaraswamy, JD (S) (Janata Dal (Secular))
- Piyush Goyal, BJP
- Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP
- Jitan Ram Manjhi, HAM (Hindustani Awam Morcha or India People’s Front)
- Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan Singh), JD (U) (Janata Dal (United))
- Sarbananda Sonowal, BJP
- Virendra Kumar, BJP
- Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu, TDP (Telugu Desam Party)
- Pralhad Joshi, BJP
- Jual Oram, BJP
- Giriraj Singh, BJP
- Ashwini Vaishnaw, BJP
- Jyotiraditya Scindia, BJP
- Bhupender Yadav, BJP
- Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, BJP
- Annpurna Devi, BJP
- Kiren Rijiju, BJP
- Hardeep Singh Puri, BJP
- Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, BJP
- G Kishan Reddy, BJP
- Chirag Paswan, LJP (Ram Vilas) (Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas))
- CR Patil, BJP
- Inderjit Singh, BJP
- Dr Jitendra Singh, BJP
- Arjun Ram Meghwal, BJP
- Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav, Shiv Sena
- Jayant Chaudhary, RLD (Rashtriya Lok Dal)
- Jitin Prasada, BJP
- Shripad Naik, BJP
- Pankaj Chaudhary, BJP
- Krishan Pal, BJP
- Ram Das Athawale, RPI (Republican Party of India)
- Ramnath Thakur, JD (U)
- Nityanand Rai, BJP
- Anupriya Patel, Apna Dal (Soneylal)
- V Somanna, BJP
- Dr Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, TDP
- Prof SP Singh Baghel, BJP
- Shobha Karandlaje, BJP
- Kirti Vardhan Singh, BJP
- BL Verma, BJP
- Shantanu Thakur, BJP
- Suresh Gopi, BJP
- Dr L Murugan, BJP
- Ajay Tamta, BJP
- Bandi Sanjay Kumar, BJP
- Kamlesh Paswan, BJP
- Bhagirath Choudhry, BJP
- Satish Chandra Dubey, BJP
- Sanjay Seth, BJP
- Ravneet Singh, BJP
- Durga Das Uikey, BJP
- Raksha Nikhil Khadse, BJP
- Sukanta Majumdar, BJP
- Savitri Thakur, BJP
- Tokhan Sahu, BJP
- Raj Bhushan Choudhry, Vikassheel Insaan Party
- Bhupathi Raju Srinivasa Varma, BJP
- Harsh Malhotra, BJP
- Nimuben Bambhaniya, BJP
- Murlidhar Mohol, BJP
- George Kurien, BJP
- Pabitra Margherita, BJP
The portfolios to the Cabinet ministers will be assigned in the coming weeks.
This comes as the recently held general elections saw PM Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagging 240 seats, and together with the NDA, securing a majority of 293 seats out of 543 Lok Sabha seats.
On the other hand, the opposition Congress won 99 seats in the general election, while its INDIA bloc bagged 234 seats.
