Narendra Modi takes oath as Prime Minister of India for historic third straight term

His oath of office was administered by President Droupadi Murmu at a grand ceremony which was attended by dignitaries, top political leaders, MPs of India and heads of several countries including Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Modi took oath along with 71 ministers, including 30 of cabinet rank.

Besides five ministers with Independent charge, 36 Ministers of State were also sworn in. 

There are nine new faces in the cabinet. 

  President, Droupadi Murmu, the Vice President, Jagdeep Dhankhar with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the other members of Council of Ministers after the Swearing-in Ceremony, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on June 09, 2024.

Bollywood and southern stars, including Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Rajinikanth, and country's top industrialists like Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani attended the ceremony.

Followed by the swearing-in of PM Modi, other ministers, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, JP Nadda, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, Kiran Rijiju, Piyush Goyal and Shiv Raj Singh Chouhan, were sworn in. 

Narendra Modi returned for a rare third consecutive term in office with his allies, but fell short of an absolute majority for his BJP (240 seats as against 272 required), in an election that gave a new lease of life to a Congress-led disparate Opposition bloc- INDIA-  as the anti-Modi union halted the saffron juggernaut to under 300.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Modi's BJP garnered 293 seats while the opposition INDIA bloc bagged 234 in the 543-member Paliament. 

 Also read: LIVE BLOG OF THE SWEARING-IN OF MODI 3.0

In a staggered seven phase national election which concluded on June 1, the 73-year-old Narendra Modi led his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to victory but failed to get an absolute majority for his party BJP, paving the way for the return of coalition government in India.

PM Modi at the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on June 09, 2024.

Among the 15 coalition parties in NDA his main allies are Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led by Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of Janata Dal-United (JD-U). 

In a consiliatory note since the poll result which favoured a coalition government, Modi said: "We have won the majority ... but to run the country it is unanimity that is crucial ... we will strive for unanimity."

Modi, who had banked on his government's delivery of service, welfare schemes, resolute foreign policy, leadership and vaccination during the pandemic besides the building of a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya as a symbol of a Hindu resurgence in India, failed to achieve an outright majority despite a target of 370 seats for BJP alone, but equalled the record of Nehru to return as a prime minister with coalition support for the third consecutive term. 

President, Droupadi Murmu, the Vice President, Jagdeep Dhankhar with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the other members of Council of Ministers after the Swearing-in Ceremony, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on June 09, 2024.

List of Ministers: 

Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Jagat Prakash Nadda, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, Manohar Lal Khattar, HD Kumaraswamy, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Lalan Singh, Sarbananda Sonowal, Virendra Kumar, Ram Mohan Naidu, Pralhad Joshi, Jual Oram, Giriraj Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Bhupendra Yadav, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Annapurna Devi, Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandaviya, G Kishan Reddy, Chirag Paswan, CR Patil, Rao Inderjit Singh, Jitendra Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Pratap Rao Jadhav, Jitin Prasada, Shripad Yesso Naik, Pankaj Chaudhary, Krishan Pal, Ramdas Athawale, and Ram Nath Thakur, Nityanand Rai, Anupriya Patel, V Somanna, Chandra S. Pemmasani, S. P. Singh Baghel, Shobha Karandlaje, Kirti Vardhan Singh, B. L. Verma, Shantanu Thakur, Suresh Gopi, L Murugan, Ajay Tamta, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Kamlesh Paswan, Bhagirath Choudhary, Satish Chandra Dubey, Sanjay Seth, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Durga Das Uikey, Raksha Khadse, Sukanta Majumdar, Savitri Thakur, Tokhan Sahu, Raj Bhushan Choudhary, Bhupathi Raju Srinivasa Varma, Harsh Malhotra, Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhaniya, Murlidhar Mohol, George Kurian, Pabitra Margherita.