Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi was sworn-in as the prime minister for a second term at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday. President Ram Nath Kovind also administered the oath to Modi’s new council of ministers.
Modi’s new Council of Ministers includes 24 Cabinet ministers, nine ministers of state with independent charge and 24 ministers of state. Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, DV Sadananda Gowda, Ram Vilas Paswan, Smriti Irani and Harsimrat Kaur Badal are among the Cabinet ministers.
Nearly 8,000 guests attended the event, including heads of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Mauritius and Kyrgyzstan. Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi also took part in the event. The chief ministers of all the states were invited for the swearing-in ceremony, but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declined the invitation.
Here are the updates:
11.12 pm: BJP President Amit Shah thanks Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his faith in him. “Your leadership and continued support is a great source of inspiration,” he adds. “I assure you that I will put my best efforts to serve our people and country.”
11.07 pm: The new Cabinet will meet on Friday at 5 pm, reports NDTV. The portfolios are reportedly expected to be announced by 8 am on Friday.
10.40 pm: The prime minister also thanks the international dignitaries and world leaders who attended his oath-taking ceremony.
10.37 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulates the ministers who took oath. “This team is a blend of youthful energy and administrative experience,” he adds. “It has people who have excelled as parliamentarians and those who have had distinguished professional careers. Together, we will work for India’s progress.”
10.29 pm: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang congratulates Narendra Modi on his re-election and says he is willing to work with him to constantly enhance the partnership between the two countries.
“With the joint efforts of both sides, relations between China and India are keeping moving ahead and cooperation between the two countries in various fields is deepening, which meet the common anticipation of both countries and their peoples and provide the stability and positive energy to the region as well as the whole world,” PTI quotes Li as saying in his congratulatory message to the prime minister.
9.54 pm: The Prime Minister’s Office is likely to announce the portfolios of newly-inducted ministers shortly, reports Times Now.
9.45 pm: The new government has six women ministers, two less than the previous government, according to PTI. Amethi MP Smriti Irani, former Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Fatehpur MP Niranjan Jyoti, Sarguja MP Renuka Singh Saruta and Raiganj MP Debashree Chaudhuri were sworn in as ministers.
9.41 pm: “Honoured to serve India,” says Narendra Modi after he is sworn in as prime minister.
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‘Honoured to serve India,’ says Narendra Modi after taking oath, 24 Cabinet ministers also sworn in
9.35 pm: Former Union minister Suresh Prabhu congratulates all the ministers. “I am sure the new team will do a great job together,” he says on Twitter.
9.28 pm: Former Union minister Maneka Gandhi will be the pro-tem or interim Speaker of the Lok Sabha, reports News18. As pro-tem Speaker, Gandhi will administer the oath of office to the newly-elected Lok Sabha MPs and preside over the first meeting of the Lok Sabha in which the Speaker will be elected.
9.05 pm: The Congress congratulates Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his new Cabinet. “We wish them the best [and] look forward to working with them on the growth [and] development of India [and] all its citizens.”
9.03 pm: Kailash Choudhary and Debashree Chaudhuri take oath as ministers of state, reports DD News.
8.57 pm: Renuka Singh Saruta, Som Prakash, Rameswar Teli and Pratap Chandra Sarangi take oath as ministers of state, reports DD News.
8.48 pm: Nityanand Rai, Rattan Lal Kataria and V Muraleedharan take oath as ministers of state, reports DD News.
8.42 pm: Dothre Sanjay Shamrao, Anurag Singh Thakur and Suresh Angadi sworn in as ministers of state, reports DD News.
8.36 pm: Muzaffarnagar MP Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan sworn in as minister of state, reports DD News.
8.32 pm: Niranjan Jyoti sworn in as minister of state, reports DD News.
8.30 pm: Telangana MP G Kishan Reddy, Parshottam Rupala and Ramdas Athawale take oath as ministers of state, reports DD News.
8.24 pm: Raosaheb Dadarao Danve takes oath as minister of state, according to DD News.
8.20 pm: Krishan Pal Gujjar takes oath as minister of state, DD News reports.
8.18 pm: VK Singh takes oath as a minister of state, DD News reports.
8.17 pm: Arjun Ram Meghwal, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mansukh Mandaviya sworn in as a ministers of state, DD News reports.
8.09 pm: Hardeep Singh Puri sworn in as a minister of state, DD News reports.
8.07 pm: Raj Kumar Singh is sworn in as a minister of state, DD News reports.
8.05 pm: Prahlad Singh Patel takes oath as a minister of state, DD News reports.
8.04 pm: Kiren Rijiju takes oath as a minister of state, DD News reports.
8.03 pm: Jitendra Singh takes oath as minister, reports DD News.
8.01 pm: Former Union minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik takes oath as minister in the new Cabinet, according to DD News.
7.59 pm: Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Rao Inderjit Singh take oath as ministers, reports DD News.
7.56 pm: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat joins Narendra Modi’s Cabinet.
7.53 pm: BJP leader Giriraj Singh sworn in as Union minister, DD News reports.
7.49 pm: Mahendra Nath Pandey sworn in as Union minister, reports DD News. Pandey was BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief.
7.47 pm: Karnataka MP Pralhad Joshi takes as oath as minister.
7.45 pm: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi joins the new Cabinet, reports DD News.
7.39 pm: Prakash Javadekar sworn in as minister in Narendra Modi’s Cabinet, reports DD News.
7.37 pm: Harsh Vardhan sworn in as Union minister, reports DD News.
7.35 pm: Smriti Irani takes sworn in as Union minister.
7.33 pm: BJP leader Arjun Munda takes oath as Union minister, reports DD News.
7.31 pm: BJP leader Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank takes oath as Union minister. He served as the chief minister of Uttarakhand from 2009 to 2011.
7.28 pm: Former Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar takes oath as minister, reports DD News.
7.27 pm: Thawar Chand Gehlot takes oath as Union minister.
7.25 pm: Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal takes oath as Union minister, reports DD News.
7.23 pm: Narendra Singh Tomar and Ravi Shankar Prasad take oath as Union ministers.
7.19 pm: Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party takes oath as minister, reports DD News.
7.16 pm: Nirmala Sitharaman takes the oath as Union minister.
7.15 pm: DV Sadananda Gowda takes oath as Union minister
7.11 pm: BJP President Amit Shah takes oath as Union minister.
7.08 pm: Rajnath Singh takes oath as minister.
7 pm: President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu arrive at the venue.
6.54 pm: The swearing-in ceremony will begin at 7 pm at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Delhi. Around 8,000 guests are expected to attend the event. Watch it live here.
6.50 pm: BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur, and former Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar along with other leaders are seated on the stage at Rashtrapati Bhavan, reports ANI.
6.47 pm: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, senior BJP leader LK Advani, and former Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj have arrived at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, reports ANI.
6.45 pm: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad arrive for the swearing-in ceremony, reports ANI.
6.44 pm: Bihar Chief Minister says the Janata Dal (United) will support the National Democratic Alliance fully, reports ANI. “They wanted only one person from JD(U) in the Cabinet, so it would have been just a symbolic participation,” he says. “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, no confusion.”
6.41 pm: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar arrives at Rashtrapati Bhavan for the swearing-in ceremony, reports NDTV. A member of the National Democratic Alliance, Kumar said his party will not join the new government.
6.32 pm: BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Giriraj Singh arrive at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, reports ANI.
6.26 pm: Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar says his party will not be part of Narendra Modi’s government, reports NDTV. “The offer we got was not acceptable,” he says.
Kumar says his party will remain a part of the National Democratic Alliance and will work with the BJP, reports News18.
6.17 pm: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart YS Jaganmohan Reddy, who took oath earlier in the day, will not attend Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony as permission was denied for their special aircraft to land in Delhi, reports PTI. Reddy and Rao had planned to fly to Delhi by a special aircraft from Vijayawada.
Unidentified officials say the chief ministers were supposed to depart from Vijayawada around 2.30 pm, but permission to land their aircraft at Delhi airport was denied after 3.30 pm due to arrival of foreign heads of state and government.
6.12 pm: BJP President Amit Shah arrives at Rashtrapati Bhavan for the swearing-in ceremony, reports ANI.
6.10 pm: Anurag Thakur, a BJP MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, meets Narendra Modi at the prime minister’s residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, reports ANI.
6.05 pm: First-time MP from Telangana, G Kishan Reddy, will take oath as minister, reports IANS. BJP leader from Kerala V Muraleedharan is also set to join Narendra Modi’s new ministry. “I always worked among the people,” says Muraleedharan. “With this new responsibility, I will continue to work for the upliftment of the people.”
5.48 pm: Guests arrive at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony.
5.30 pm: Former Union minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik, who was elected from North Goa, will take oath as a minister in Narendra Modi’s Cabinet, reports ANI. “I want to thank the prime minister and party president Amit Shah for again giving me a chance of serving the country by making me a part of the government,” says Naik. “I have been invited to the oath taking ceremony, not been informed of the ministry yet.”
5.15 pm: BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Sushma Swaraj, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Smriti Irani, Arjun Meghwal, Ramdas Athawale, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Thawar Chand Gehlot, Prakash Javadekar are among the leaders who are likely to take oath today, reports The Indian Express.
5 pm: Suresh Angadi, an MP from Karnataka, congratulates Nirmala Sitharaman for being selected as a minister in Narendra Modi’s new Cabinet. Sitharaman served as the defence minister in Modi’s earlier Cabinet.
4.55 pm: Three newly elected MPs from Karnataka will take oath as ministers. DV Sadananda Gowda, who was a part of Modi’s first Cabinet, Pralhad Joshi, a four-time MP from Dharwad, and Suresh Angadi, four-time MP from Belgaum, announced their induction into the Council of Ministers on Twitter.
4.45 pm: BJP’s Gujarat chief Jitu Vaghani says he met party President Amit Shah and congratulated Shah on being part of Narendra Modi’s new Cabinet.
4.40 pm: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut says party colleague Arvind Sawant will take oath as minister, reports ANI. “It is decided that there will be one minister from each ally,” says Raut.
4.35 pm: Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, Thailand’s Special Envoy Grisada Boonrac and Ambassador to India Chutintorn Gongsakdi, Myanmar President U Win Myint arrived in the national Capital earlier in the day to attend the event.
4.30 pm: Narendra Modi paid tributes at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial in Rajghat in New Delhi earlier in the day. Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah also paid tributes to late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the Sadaiv Atal Samadhi. The prime minister also visited the National War Memorial to pay tributes.