Modi meets Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi before staking claim as PM for third time

Modi was later scheduled to go to the Rashtrapati Bhawan to call on President Droupadi Murmu for staking claim to form the government.

New Delhi: Before heading for the NDA parliamentary party meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on BJP patriarchs LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi at their homes.

Mr Advani, the former deputy Prime Minister under Vajpayee rule was conferred Bharat Ratna by the Modi government and has been the longest-serving BJP.

Joshi, also a contemporary of Vajpayee, served as HRD Minister between 1999 to 2004. In 2014, when Modi contested from Varanasi, Joshi vacated his seat and shifted to Kanpur.

Both Joshi and Advani did not contest the 2019 LS polls and were sifted to ‘margdarshak Mandal’.

RSS poster boy during the Temple movement, Advani also did not attend the Ayodhya Ram Temple consecration ceremony in January 2024.

This is the first time Modi would be heading a coalition government and will have to take NDA allies along since the BJP with 240 MPs lacks a majority in the Lok Sabha.