The swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was held on Sunday at 7:15 pm. The ceremony took place at Rashtrapati Bhavan where along with the Prime Minister, the newly inducted ministers also took oath.
Modi is now the only prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to become the PM of India for a third consecutive term.
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Here are some takeaways from the grand ceremony.
Kharge present, Sonia absent
After the initial buzz over opposition leaders not getting invited to PM Modi's swearing-in ceremony, an invitation was sent to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi. While Kharge accepted the invitation and was present at the ceremony, Sonia gave it a miss.
Kharge said that he attended the ceremony because of his constitutional duty as the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
TMC's 'non-participation'
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) did not attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony. Sudip Bandyopadhyay, the party's leader in the Lok Sabha, told the media earlier in the day that BJP leader Pralhad Joshi had called and invited the party members for the ceremony, but the party decided to skip it.
Similarly, leaders of Samajwadi Party, RJD, DMK, Shiv Sena (UBT), AAP, CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML)L, JMM and RSP among others chose not to attend the event.
72-member council of ministers took oath
Along with PM Modi, 30 cabinet ministers, 5 ministers of state (independent charge) and 36 ministers of state took oath on Sunday.
New faces in Union cabinet
Big names in the newly inducted list of ministers included former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Vidisha MP Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who is representing the Karnal constituency.
The BJP-led NDA government also made sure to give its first MP in Kerala, Suresh Gopi, his due representation. Also, Hindustani Awami Morcha founding President Jitan Ram Manjhi also managed to secure a ministerial berth for himself.
Apart from them, new faces from the BJP in the Council of Ministers are Jitin Prasada, Raksha Khadse, Muralidhar Mohol, and V Somanna.
Retained ministers
Senior BJP faces like Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Pralhad Joshi and Nirmala Sitharaman were retained into the Cabinet. Apart from them, Hardeep Singh Puri, Jitendra Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupender Yadav also managed to retain their ministerial berths.
Meanwhile, Jyotiraditya Scindia also returned to the cabinet, this time as a Lok Sabha MP.
Dropped ministers
19 ministers had lost the recently concluded 2024 Lok Sabha Elections including big names like Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, RK Singh and Rajeev Chandrashekhar. They were dropped from the cabinet ministers' list in the third term of the Modi government.
Apart from this, former information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur was dropped from the cabinet despite being re-elected from Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur.
Leaders from 7 countries attend the ceremony
Several leaders from India's neighbouring countries were invited for Modi's swearing-in ceremony.
The list of foreign designates who attended the ceremony included, Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe, President of Maldives Mohamed Muizzu, Vice-President of Seychelles Ahmed Afif, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' and Prime Minister of Bhutan Tshering Tobgay.
Over 8,000 guests
According to a report by Times of India, more than 8,000 people were present at the oath-taking ceremony of PM Modi.