Modi 3.0: Narendra Modi sworn in as PM for third consecutive term

Narendra Modi takes oath as PM for third consecutive term/ Screengrab

Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister for the third consecutive term today. He took the oath at 7:30 pm in a grand ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi in the presence of top leaders from India and the Indian Ocean region including Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe. He was administered the oath by President Droupadi Murmu.

Notably, this event made Narendra Modi the only leader after former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who has been elected for a third consecutive term after completing the full tenure of each previous term.

Alongside Narendra Modi, his cabinet of ministers took oath; the cabinet includes Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, S Jaishankar, Manohar Lal, HD Kumaraswamy, Dharmendra Pradhan, Nitin Gadkari, JP Nadda, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh, Sarbanand Sonowal and other tall leaders from BJP and its NDA allies.

It has not been ascertained yet as to what portfolios will be handled by which minister.

PM Modi takes oath: Preparations undertaken

Meanwhile, posters featuring Narendra Modi were put up in Delhi ahead of his swearing-in ceremony and around 1,100 traffic police personnel of the Delhi Police were deployed.

An advisory was issued to the public for the traffic movement and route arrangements were made for the delegates as part of the arrangements for Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi's oath ceremony on Sunday.

Several leaders and state heads of the neighbourhood region and Indian Ocean region were invited to PM Modi's swearing-in ceremony as distinguished guests, a testament to India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in an official statement on Saturday said, "President of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe; President of Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu; Vice-President of Seychelles, Ahmed Afif; Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina; Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth; Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'; and Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay, have accepted the invitation to attend."Apart from the leaders and state heads, more than 250 workers who were involved in the construction of the Parliament will also come to BJP leader Mansukh Mandaviya's residence at 3 pm and go to the President's house to participate in the oath-taking ceremony of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi.

The BJP got 240 seats and NDA has secured 292 seats out of 543 Lok Sabha seats. Congress fought the election as part of the INDIA bloc and the parties together were able to prevent BJP from getting a majority on its own in Lok Sabha. The Congress secured 99 seats. Samajwadi Party got 37 seats, while Trinamool Congress got 29. DMK managed to win 22 seats.