Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi marked the beginning of his swearing-in ceremony by paying tributes to the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, at Rajghat in New Delhi on Sunday. He also visited the National War Memorial and Sadaiv Atal, the memorial to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Modi will be sworn in as the Prime Minister of India for the third consecutive term today at 7:15 PM. He is the only leader after Jawaharlal Nehru to have been elected for a third consecutive term after completing the full tenure of each previous term.
Modi’s swearing-in ceremony will be attended by leaders and state heads from the neighborhood and Indian Ocean region, including the President of Sri Lanka, the President of Maldives, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and the Prime Minister of Nepal, among others. This reflects India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. Over 250 workers who contributed to the construction of the Parliament will also be present at the ceremony.
In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 240 seats, while the National Democratic Alliance secured 292 seats out of 543. Congress, part of the INDIA bloc, secured 99 seats. Other parties, like the Samajwadi Party, won 37 seats, Trinamool Congress secured 29, and DMK won 22 seats. Together, these parties prevented the BJP from securing a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha.
