Narendra Modi takes oath with 71 other ministers

New Delhi: Narendra Modi today took oath as the Prime Minister of India for his third consecutive term at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath to the Prime Minister and his ministerial colleagues. Besides him, President Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to 30 Cabinet Ministers, 5 Ministers of State (Independent Charge) and 36 Ministers of State (MoS), making the list 72, the largest since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) first formed the Government under Modi in 2014. The newly formed ministry has eleven ministers from allies, including five Cabinet ministers – Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party, Jitan Ram Manjhi of Hindustani Awam Morcha, Rajiv Ranjan of Janata Dal-United, HD Kumaraswamy of Janata Dal (Secular), Chirag Paswan of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). The six MoS inducted into the ministry from the BJP allies are Jayant Chaudhary of Rashtriya Lok Dal, Ramdas Athawale of Republican Party of India (Athawale), Ram Nath Thakur of Janata Dal-United, Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani of Telugu Desam Party, Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal (Sonelal); and Prataprao Jadhav of Shiv Sena.

Modi later posted on X: “Took oath as Prime Minister at the ceremony earlier this evening. I look forward to serving 140 crore Indians and working with the Council of Ministers to take India to new heights of progress.

Congratulations to all those who have taken oath today. This team of Ministers is a great blend of youth and experience, and we will leave no stone unturned in improving the lives of people.

I am grateful to all the foreign dignitaries who joined the swearing-in ceremony. India will always work closely with our valued partners in pursuit of human progress.”

President of India, Droupadi Murmu, today also hosted a banquet in honour of the leaders of neighbouring countries attending the swearing-in ceremony of the Prime Minister of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan today.

Leaders who attended the banquet include the President of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe; the President of the Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu; the Vice President of Seychelles, Ahmed Afif; the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina; the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and his wife Kobita Jugnauth; the Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda; and the Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay.

Welcoming the leaders, the President thanked them for accepting the invitation to the swearing-in ceremony of the new Government, and for joining us in this celebration of democracy.

She noted that their presence on this occasion is yet another testament to the centrality of India’s ‘Neighborhood First’ policy, and our SAGAR Vision for the Indian Ocean region. As stakeholders in each other’s progress and well-being, we count on our closest friends and neighbours to work with us to foster peace and prosperity in our region and beyond.

The President also wished Prime Minister Narendra Modi success as he took on his high responsibility in the service of our people.

After being sworn in as Prime Minister for the 3rd time, PM Narendra Modi signed his first file authorising the release of the 17th instalment of PM Kisan Nidhi.  This, he said, will benefit 9.3 crore farmers and distribute around Rs 20,000 crores.

After signing the file, PM Modi said “Ours is a Government fully committed to Kisan Kalyan [Welfare of farmers]. It is therefore fitting that the first file signed on taking charge is related to farmer welfare. We want to keep working even more for the farmers and the agriculture sector in the times to come.”

In the Union Cabinet, while the BJP has 61 ministers, the allies have 11 ministers – Telugu Desam Party: 2; Janata Dal-United: 2; Lok Janshakti Party: 1; Janata Dal (Secular): 1;  Shiv Sena: 1; Republican Party of India (Athawale): 1; Rashtriya Lok Dal: 1; Apna Dal: 1; and Hindustani Awam Morcha: 1

Following is the list of Modi’s ministers who were sworn in today:

Cabinet Ministers

1. Raj Nath Singh
2. Amit Shah
3. Nitin Jairam Gadkari
4. Jagat Prakash Nadda
5. Shivraj Singh Chouhan
6. Nirmala Sitharaman
7. Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
8. Manohar Lal
9. H D Kumaraswamy
10. Piyush Goyal
11. Dharmendra Pradhan
12. Jitan Ram Manjhi
13. Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh
14. Sarbananda Sonowal
15. Dr Virendra Kumar
16. Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu
17. Pralhad Joshi
18. Jual Oram
19. Giriraj Singh
20. Ashwini Vaishnaw
21. Jyotiraditya M. Scindia
22. Bhupender Yadav
23. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
24. Annapurna Devi
25. Kiren Rijiju
26. Hardeep Singh Puri
27. Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya
28. G Kishan Reddy
29. Chirag Paswan
30. C R Patil

Ministers of State (Independent Charge)

1. Rao Inderjit Singh
2. Dr Jitendra Singh
3. Arjun Ram Meghwal
4. Jadhav Prataprao Ganpatrao
5. Jayant Chaudhary

Ministers of State

1. Jitin Prasada
2. Shripad Yesso Naik
3. Pankaj Chaudhary
4. Krishan Pal
5. Ramdas Athawale
6. Ram Nath Thakur
7. Nityanand Rai
8. Anupriya Patel
9. V Somanna
10. Dr Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani
11. Prof S. P. Singh Baghel
12. Sushri Sobha Karandlaje
13. Kirtivardhan Singh
14. B. L. Verma
15. Shantanu Thakur
16. Suresh Gopi
17. Dr L Murugan
18. Ajay Tamta
19. Bandi Sanjay Kumar
20. Kamlesh Paswan
21. Bhagirath Choudhary
22. Satish Chandra Dubey
23. Sanjay Seth
24. Ravneet Singh
25. Durgadas Uikey
26. Raksha Nikhil Khadse
27. Sukanta Majumdar
28. Savitri Thakur
29. Tokhan Sahu
30. Raj Bhushan Choudhary
31. Bhupathi Raju Srinivasa Varma
32. Harsh Malhotra
33. Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhaniya
34. Murlidhar Mohol
35. George Kurian
36. Pabitra Margherita

– global bihari bureau