Modi Equals Nehru's Record, Sworn In As Prime Minister For Third Consecutive Term

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for a third consecutive term at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday.

Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, and Amit Shah also took oath as cabinet ministers, while party president J P Nadda returned to the cabinet after five years. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to them.

Modi, 73, first became prime minister in 2014 and then returned to office in 2019. He is the second PM after Jawaharlal Nehru to be elected for a third consecutive term. He was re-elected to Lok Sabha from Varanasi.

Top leaders from India's neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean region -- Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina, Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, Bhutanese PM Tshering Tobgay, and Vice-President of Seychelles Ahmed Afif -- were special guests at the function.

There is a view that heavyweight portfolios like home, finance, defence and external affairs besides education and culture, two ministries with strong ideological hues, will be kept by the BJP, while its allies can get anywhere between five to eight cabinet berths.

While leaders like Shah and Singh are seen within the party as a certainty in the new Cabinet, former chief ministers who have won the Lok Sabha polls like Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Basavaraj Bommai, Manohar Lal Khattar and Sarbananda Sonowal are strong contenders for joining the government.

Having seen the vagaries of politics during over a decade and a half of tenure in the BJP's organisation, Modi has presented a picture of unflappable confidence in analysing the results, making no allowances for the opposition's surprise successes in parts of the country.

He has been since leading his party to victory and power in 2002, 2007, and 2012 in Gujarat, and then in 2014 and 2019 at the Centre. It is though different this time as the BJP has lost majority on its own.

With PTI inputs.

Watch the live streaming of swearing-in ceremony here: