Modi sarkar 2.0: Narendra Modi takes oath; Shah, Jaishankar join cabinet

New Delhi: Narendra Damodardas Modi, who led the Bharatiya Janata Party to an emphatic victory in the 17th Lok Sabha election, was sworn in for the second consecutive time as the country’s Prime Minister on Thursday.

President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office and secrecy to Modi.

In aggregate, 57 ministers took the oath of office and secrecy. The new government has 24 Cabinet Ministers, nine Ministers of State with independent charge (MoS(I)) and 24 Ministers of State (MoS).

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The leaders who took oath as cabinet ministers included Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Ram Vilas Paswan, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, D Sadanand Gowda, Shiv Sena's Arvind Sawant, Thawar Chand Gehlot, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Narendra Singh Tomar, Giriraj Singh, ex-foreign secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Dharmendra Pradhan, Prahlad Joshi among others.

Former foreign secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was accommodated in the cabinet at the last moment.

Santosh Gangwar, Rao Inderjit Singh, Shripad Naik, Dr Jeetendra Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Prahlad Patel, Raj Kumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri and Mansukh Mandaviya took oath as MoS(I).

Those who took oath as Ministers of State include Faggan Singh Kulaste, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Arjun Meghwal, General (Retd.) V K Singh, Krishan Pal Gurjar, Raosaheb Danve Patil, Ramdas Athawale, Babul Supriyo, Sanjeev Balyan, Anurag Thakur, Pratap Chandra Sarangi among others.

Debut MP Debasree Chaudhary also took oath as a minister of state.

Read: Don't want any symbolic participation in the government: JD(U) chief Nitish

Leaders of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) countries, including Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, President of Myanmar U Win Myint and Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering also attended the gala event. Kyrgyz President and current chair of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov, and Mauritius PM Pravind Kumar Jugnauth also attended the event.

Earlier, senior leader Arun Jaitley had communicated his unwillingness to take any ministerial position due to his ill health.

Senior leader and outgoing foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, who did not contest the election on health grounds and was speculated to retain her office (through Rajya Sabha), did not take oath.

Read: Modi sarkar 2.0: Amit Shah sworn-in as Cabinet Minister

Among the names which were a part of the last government but didn't take oath this time were Suresh Prabhu, Menaka Gandhi, J P Nadda, Radha Mohan Singh Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore and Satyapal Singh.

Minutes before the swearing-in ceremony, BJP ally Janata Dal (United) pulled out of the government as the JD(U) leaders were unhappy with the ministerial positions that were offered to party.

Bihar chief minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar said, “They wanted only one person from JD(U) in the cabinet, so it would have been just symbolic participation. We informed them that it is fine, we don't need it. It is not a big issue, we are full NDA and not upset at all. We are working together and there no confusion.”

The governors and chief ministers of states, senior politicians, industrialists, religious heads, film celebrities, diplomats, bureaucrats and other personalities were also in attendance.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar were present among others.

Read: From venue to menu: Here are the details of Modi’s swearing-in ceremony

The function was also attended by former President Pratibha Patil, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, senior BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and Lal Krishna Advani among others.

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das and Comptroller and Auditor General Rajiv Mehrishi were also in attendance.

Among the business personalities, chairman of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani, steel baron L N Mittal, Non-executive chairman of Tata Sons Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group Natarajan Chandrasekaran, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, chairman of Adani Group Gautam Adani, head of Patanjali Ayurved Acharya Balkrishna were present.

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Also in attendance were veteran actors Jeetendra and Anupam Kher, actors Shahid Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut, film directors Karan Johar, Madhur Bhandarkar and Anand L Rai, spiritual guru Jaggi Vasudev and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi.

Kin of BJP workers killed in West Bengal and Pulwama martyrs also attended the ceremony.

The newly elected ministers are likely to meet the prime minister on May 31 to discuss portfolios.

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