NDA leader Modi sworn in for 3rd term as PM

NEW DELHI: Narendra Damodardas Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Sunday for the record third term. The Modi 3.0 new team includes 30 Cabinet ministers, 5 Ministers of State with Independent Charge and 36 Ministers of State who took oath of office along with him.

PM Modi became the first leader since former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to be elected for a third consecutive term after completing previous terms. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to the Prime Minister and ministers in a star-studded ceremony at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The swearing-in ceremony was also attended by leaders from India’s neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean Region who were among dignitaries and special invitees.

The grand ceremony, featuring bugles, ceremonial guards, and floral displays, took place at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan and lasted 155 minutes, with approximately 9,000 attendees from various walks of life.

Along with 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 PM Modi’s emphasis on continuity and his reliance on the experience of the party’s heavyweights as they held senior positions in his second term.

BJP president J P Nadda returned to the Union Cabinet after five years, while former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and ex-Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar were the fresh faces in the Modi Cabinet.

BJP leaders Piyush Goyal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupender Yadav, who were earlier in the Rajya Sabha but have now been elected to the Lok Sabha, were among those retained as ministers.

Former Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Virendra Kumar, Pralhad Joshi, Giriraj Singh and Jual Oram, all from BJP, were among those sworn in as Cabinet ministers. Eleven ministers from NDA alliance partners took the oath of office and secrecy on Sunday.

Among the allies of the BJP, which did not get a majority on its own this time, HAM (Secular) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi, JD(U) leader Lalan Singh and TDP’s K Ram Mohan Naidu also took the oath of office as ministers.

Among the new ministers, 33 are first-timers, including six from prominent political families. This group includes former chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana), and HD Kumaraswamy (Karnataka), as well as actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi, who made history as the BJP’s first Lok Sabha MP from Kerala.

A notable 43 ministers have previously served in Parliament for three or more terms, bringing a wealth of experience to the table.

At least 34 ministers come with prior experience in state legislatures, and 23 of them have served as Ministers of States.

Caste representation has also been considered: out of 71 ministers, 27 are from the Other Backward Class (OBC), 10 from the Scheduled Caste (SC), 5 from the Scheduled Tribe (ST), and 5 from minority communities. The new coalition government does not include any Muslim representatives.

The new Modi ministry, including the Prime Minister, has 72 members, just nine short of the maximum allowable 81. It is also six fewer than the 78 ministers the Modi government had between 2019 and 2024.

After a Cabinet expansion in 2021, the Modi government reached its peak strength of 78 ministers.

However, the outgoing council of ministers had 72 members, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The first meeting of the new Cabinet is expected to take place on Monday evening at the Prime Minister’s Lok Kalyan Marg residence.

The Council of Ministers includes representatives from all states that send four or more MPs to the Lok Sabha, as well as smaller states like Goa and Arunachal Pradesh.

Bihar has significant representation, with eight ministers from the state, four of whom have Cabinet rank.

This includes BJP’s Dalit allies Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi, highlighting the NDA’s focus on strengthening ties with the Scheduled Castes.

Uttar Pradesh, which sends the most members, 80, to the Lok Sabha, has got nine ministerial berths, which includes one Cabinet, while Bihar has bagged four cabinet berths out of a total of eight ministers from the state.

Maharashtra has six ministerial berths, including two Cabinet ministers, while Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have five

members each in the council of ministers that was sworn in on Sunday. Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have three ministerial berths each.

Odisha, Assam, Jharkhand, Telangana, Punjab, West Bengal and Kerala have two ministerial berths in the council of ministers.

Among the 72 ministers, seven are women, comprising less than 10 percent of the total. Some ministers, like Hardeep Singh Puri and S Jaishankar, represent states other than their home states.

Former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Virendra Kumar, Pralhad Joshi, Giriraj Singh, Jual Oram, Gujarat BJP President C R Paatil, Mansukh Mandaviya, G Kishan Reddy, Hardeep Singh Puri, Kiren Rijiju, Annapurna Devi, and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat were among those sworn in as Cabinet ministers.

Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge was present, even as several Opposition leaders skipped the ceremony.

Those present on the occasion included Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, TDP president Chandrababu Naidu and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar.

Bollywood actors Shahrukh Khan, Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Rajinikanth, and industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani were among special invitees who witnessed the swearing-in ceremony.

In his third innings at the Centre, PM Modi has to rely upon key NDA allies – JD(U) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) which have 28 MPs with them and the Lok Jan Shakti (Ram Vilas Paswan) of Chirag Paswan which has 5 MPs. The BJP fell short of the majority mark of 272 by 32 MPs.

The opposition INDIA bloc fought a close electoral battle to shock the BJP in its strongholds such as Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The BJP-led NDA won 293 seats out of 543, which Modi has noted is the biggest success for any pre-poll alliance when a single party did not get a majority.

Top leaders from India’s neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean region -- Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina, Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, Bhutanese PM Tshering Tobgay and Vice-President of Seychelles Ahmed Afif — were special guests at the swearing in ceremony.

Members from the transgender community as well as sanitation workers and labourers, who were involved in the construction of the new Parliament building, saints and seers were also among the nearly 9,000 people who were present at the forecourts of the Rashtrapati Bhavan for the grand event.