President Droupadi Murmu on June 7 formally invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to form the next government, and begin his third successive term as Prime Minister, after the National Democratic Alliance’s Parliamentary Party elected him as its leader. The new government will be sworn in on Sunday, June 9 at 7.15 p.m., the the Rashtrapati Bhavan announced.
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Earlier in the day, leaders of NDA parties, including Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (U), and Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena Chief Minister Eknath Shinde met the President Murmu and handed over their letters of support to the new government.
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At the meeting of the NDA Parliamentary Party held at the Central Hall of the old Parliament House, now termed the Samvidhan Sadan, the Prime Minister evoked the spirit of a coalition government, stressing that he would strive to ensure sarvamat, or consensus, in all the decisions of his next government.
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Consensus-driven approach
“Governments may be made on the basis of numbers, but the country is run on consensus,” he said, asserting that the NDA was an organic alliance committed to the principle of “nation first”.
Kicking off the proceedings at the NDA parliamentary party meeting, senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh proposed Mr. Modi’s name as the leader of the parliamentary party, and as the Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha, in which he was seconded by other senior leaders, including the BJP’s Nitin Gadkari and Amit Shah, Mr. Naidu, Mr. Kumar, Mr. Shinde, Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party, and Pawan Kalyan of the Jana Sena.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said that mutual trust was at the core of this alliance, which is committed to the principle of ‘sarv pantha sambhava (all sects are equal)‘. Claiming that NDA partners were all known for good governance, he noted that the alliance was forming a government at the Centre at a time when its members were also in power in 22 States.
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Debunks Opposition narratives
Mr. Modi took potshots at the Congress, pointing out that even after 10 years in the Opposition, the party had not managed to reach a hundred seats. He said that the Opposition had made every attempt to paint the NDA’s election victory as a loss, but insisted that impression could not be created. “There were efforts to not acknowledge this very victory, to cast a shadow of defeat. But all such efforts remained fruitless,” he said.
Defending the democratic process in the country made a pointed jab, asking whether “EVMs were still alive” when the Lok Sabha results came in, referring to the Opposition’s doubts regarding Electronic Voting Machines.
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‘Man with a vision’
His NDA allies were fulsome in their praise for the Prime Minister, with Mr. Naidu calling him “a man with a vision and a zeal”, whose execution of plans was “perfect”. Terming Mr. Modi the “right man at the right time”, the TDP chief said that India’s enhanced prestige on the global stage was due to the Prime Minister’s decade-long tenure.
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Mr. Kumar, known for his frequents flips from one side of the political divide to the other, said that he would “be with PM Modi at all times” and that the Opposition, which had “won a few seats now, will lose them all the next time”, a remark that drew laughter from the assembled MPs and leaders.
Swearing-in ceremony
After the NDA meeting, senior leaders of the alliance got into a huddle with BJP president J.P. Nadda, and senior BJP leaders Mr. Shah and Mr. Singh to discuss the allocation of portfolios and Ministries.
Mr. Modi said that his swearing-in ceremony would be held on June 9, alongside his new Council of Ministers and promised that, as in the past, the new government too would serve the people.
The swearing-in ceremony will be attended by the leaders of neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremasinghe, Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, and Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kumar Dahal “Prachanda”.