Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his newly selected Cabinet Ministers are all set to take the oath of office today for the second consecutive term at the Rashtrapati Bhawan after BJP witnessed a landslide victory in the recently-concluded national elections. The team will be administered the oath by President Ram Nath Kovind. The grand oath-taking event started at 7 pm and is attended by world leaders, celebrities and politicians. The ceremony is taking place in the presence of nearly 8,000 guests.
BJP president Amit Shah and senior leaders Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Prakash Javadekar and Ravi Shankar Prasad are set to be sworn in as cabinet ministers along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The news of Shah joining the Cabinet came from Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani, whose congratulatory message on Twitter initiated the speculation. Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj arrives at the Rashtrapati Bhavan forecourt and she will be supposed not to continue as the Foreign Minister. Moreover, reports suggest former foreign secretary S Jaishankar has received a call to join the new cabinet of Narendra Modi. Jaishankar is also the former Ambassador of India to the US and China.
Reports are around that JP Nadda is likely to replace Amit Shah as the BJP President as there are talks around Shah being a part of the Modi 2.0 cabinet.
From the Congress camp, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, party president Rahul Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh, senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad have arrived at the Rashtrapati Bhawan and are seen seated in the front row of the guest seating area.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has also reached the venue. Rajinikanth, BJP veterans LK Advani and MM Joshi arrive for PM oath ceremony.
While Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced this afternoon that his party JDU will not be a part of the Modi government as they were not happy with the offer made to them by BJP, he also assured that his party is not going to leave the side of the ruling party. He further told the reporters, “They wanted only one person from JDU in the cabinet, so it would have been just symbolic participation. We informed them that it is ok we don’t need it. It is not a big issue, we are fully in NDA and not upset at all. We are working together, with no confusion.”
Dignitaries from the friend lands have also made their glorious presence in the ceremony. Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering seen seated with his wife for the swearing-in ceremony of PM Modi.
