Prime Minister Modi is all set to be sworn in with his Council of Ministers for a third successive term – a feat achieved only by India’s first Prime Minister Jawharlal Nehru – albeit as the head of a coalition government.
Massive preparations are under way for the ceremony to be held on Sunday evening at the Rashtrapati Bhavan forecourt, after Prime Minister Modi was elected leader of the NDA’s parliamentary party on Friday.
Over 9,000 invitees are expected to attend the ceremony – from heads of governments of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives and Mauritius, to sanitation workers, labourers who worked on the Central Vista construction in New Delhi, as well as those who worked on the Vande Bharat trains. Beneficiaries of Central schemes, a few of whom were present at the launch of the BJP’s manifesto in April, too have been invited.
Also read: Narendra Modi’s oath-taking ceremony LIVE updates
On Saturday, senior BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and the party’s national president J.P. Nadda held hectic parleys, continuing on from Friday afternoon. Sources say that many of the NDA’s alliance partners, such as the Telugu Desam Party, the Janata Dal (U), the Shiv Sena, the Lok Janshakti Party and the Janata Dal (S) are set to get ministerial berths.
Senior sources in the BJP have confirmed that the party would be retaining the “Raisina Hills portfolios, that is, defence, home, finance and external affairs but that a fair share of important ministries would be allocated to the partners. The TDP is likely to get four berths, with three-term MP Ram Mohan Naidu a front runner for one of these berths. JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy is also a shoo-in for a Cabinet berth, so is Chirag Paswan, whose party, the LJP has won all five seats it contested in Bihar.
Within the BJP, it’s being said that former Chief Ministers who won the Lok Sabha election such as Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Basavaraj Bommai, Manohar Lal Khattar and Sarbananda Sonowal may also be accommodated.
Maharashtra, where the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP alliance has fared poorly, and Bihar, where the Opposition has shown signs of revival, may be in the focus during the government formation exercise. The Assembly election is due in the western State in October, while the poll will be held in Bihar next year.
The desertion by a section of voters, especially from the Scheduled Castes and other deprived sections of society, may also be a guiding factor in government formation even though Mr. Modi had made a point to increase their relative representation in his outgoing term.
