New Delhi : Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi took oath for a third straight term as the head of a coalition government after two full tenures in which the BJP enjoyed a majority on its own. Mr. Modi, 73, equalled the feat of the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who won in the 1952, 1957 and 1962 general elections. After Mr. Modi, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari were among 35 other Cabinet Ministers who took oath on Sunday. 36 Ministers of State, and five Ministers of State (independent charge) also took oath of office.

Rewarding the BJP’s coalition partners, Mr. Modi has inducted several MPs from the NDA partners. Two MPs each from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the BJP in Andhra Pradesh, where the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 21 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats, took oath. Several leaders, including TDP’s Ram Mohan Naidu, Pemmasani Chandrashekhar, JD(S)‘s H.D. Kumaraswamy, BJP’s Sarbananda Sonowal have been inducted into the Cabinet.

The NDA won 286 seats in this election, and the BJP won 240 seats, falling short of the 272 majority mark. This is well below the 303 and 282 seats it had won in 2019 and 2014, respectively, to have a majority on its own. Meanwhile, leaders of seven countries from South Asia and the Indian Ocean region will attend the swearing-in ceremony.