Triple Crown for Modi

New Delhi, June 9: Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister for his third term on Sunday, alongside 71 ministers forming his new cabinet.

Modi, now the first three-term Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru, took the oath at Rashtrapati Bhawan amid massive security and a gathering of over 10,000 guests, including top leaders from South Asian countries, Bollywood stars, business moguls, religious leaders, and prominent politicians.

PM Modi's cabinet includes 30 cabinet ministers, 5 Ministers of State with Independent Charge, and 36 Ministers of State.

The cabinet ensures representation from all regions of the country and various social groups.

It includes 27 ministers from Other Backward Classes, 10 from Scheduled Castes, five from Scheduled Tribes, and five from minority communities.

A record 18 senior ministers will head key ministries.

Additionally, Modi's cabinet features 43 ministers who have served three or more terms in the Parliament, with 39 having previously held ministerial positions in the Government of India.

The ceremony began with Narendra Modi taking the oath, followed by Raj Nath Singh, former Defence Minister and Amit Anil Chander Shah, former Home Minister.

Other prominent ministers sworn in included: Nitin Jairam Gadkari of BJP, J P Nadda of BJP, Shivraj Singh Chouhan of BJP, Nirmala Sitharaman of BJP, S Jaishankar of BJP, former Haryana Chief Minister and BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar, former Karnataka chief minister and son of former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, H D Kumaraswamy, Piyush Goyal of BJP Dharmendra Pradhan of BJP, Jitin Ram Manjhi of JDU, Lalan Singh of JDU, former Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Virendra Kumar, Ram Mohan Naidu of TDP, Pralhad Joshi of BJP, Jual Oram of BJP, Giriraj Singh of BJP, Ashwini Vaishnaw of BJP,

Jyotiraditya Scindia of BJP, Bhupender Yadav of BJP, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat of BJP, Anapurna Devi,

Kren Rijiju of BJP, Hardeep Singh Puri of BJP, Mansukh Mandaviya of BJP, G Kishan Reddy of BJP, Chirag Paswan of LJP Ram Vilas, C R Patil of BJP, Rao Inderjit Singh of BJP, Jitendra Singh of BJP, Arjun Ram Meghwal of BJP, Pratap Rao Jadhav of Shiv Sena, Jayant Chaudhary of RLD, Jitin Prasad of BJP, Shripad Naik of BJP, Pankaj Rao Choudhary of BJP, Krishan Pal Gurjar of BJP, Ram Das Athawale of RPI, Ram Nath Thakur of JDU, and Nityanand Rai of BJP, Anupriya Patel of ADP, V Somanna of BJP, Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani of TDP, SP Singh Baghel of BJP, Shobha Karandlaje of BJP, Kirti Vardhan Singh of BJP, B L Verma of BJP, Shantanu Thakur of BJP, Suresh Gopi of BJP, M Murugan of BJP, Ajay Tamta of BJP, Bandi Sanjay Kumar of BJP, Kamlesh Paswan of BJP, Baghirath Chaudhary of BJP, Satish Chandra Dubey,

Sanjay Seth, Ravneet Singh Bittu of BJP, Durga Dass, Raksha Khadse of BJP, Sukanta Majumdar of BJP, Savitri Thakur, Tokhan Sahu, Raj Bhushan Choudhary of BJP, Bhupati Raju Srinivasa Varma of BJP, Harsh Malhotra of BJP, Nimuben Bambhniya of BJP, Murlidhar Mohal, George Kurian, and Pabitra Margherita of BJP.

The swearing-in was administered by President Droupadi Murmu, who wore an elegant beige saree with a maroon border.

Modi entered the ceremony wearing a blue jacket over a white kurta, bowing to the audience before taking his seat among his cabinet colleagues.

Security at Rashtrapati Bhawan was tight, with a three-layered security perimeter in place.

Massive security arrangements in and around Delhi were in place.

The national capital was declared a no-fly zone, prohibiting aerial platforms like drones, paragliders, remotely piloted aircraft, and hot air balloons for the next few days.

The ceremony was attended by top leaders of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius, Seychelles, and the Maldives, reflecting India's neighbourhood first policy.

The new cabinet includes 62 ministers from the BJP and 11 from allied parties.

The NDA bloc, entering its third term, relies on key allies Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal-United (JDU).

Chief Minister of Bihar and JDU leader, Nitish Kumar congratulated Modi shortly after he took the oath.

On Friday, the elected MPs voted Modi as the leader of the Lok Sabha, BJP parliamentary party, and National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Senior party leaders, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Nirmala Sitharaman, and Mansukh Mandaviya, met with Modi over tea, a tradition before cabinet formation in 2014.

Notably absent from the cabinet list were Smriti Irani and Anurag Thakur.

Ahead of the ceremony, Modi addressed his cabinet, emphasising the need to stay focused on the ‘Viksit Bharat’ agenda.

“Development work will go on without any halt,” he said asking the cabinet to deliver results on the first 100-day agenda.

Meanwhile, an official spokesperson said that a round the clock helpline was created by the district administration for getting any information and assistance about the victims of the tragic bus accident at Kanda-Ransoo in Reasi. “For any information or assistance, these numbers may be contacted: 01991-245639 (District Emergency control Room); PCR Reasi: 01991-245076); PCR Jammu: 0191-2542000 and 9419839557,” the spokesperson said.