NEW DELHI: The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) under the leadership of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi will form the government at the Centre for the third consecutive term on Sunday. Narendra Modi is set to be sworn in as Prime Minister for the third consecutive term Today on June 9. Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi will take the oath at 7:15 PM. This is an extraordinary event as Narendra Modi is the only leader after former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who has been elected for a third consecutive term after completing the full tenure of each previous term. Alongside Narendra Modi, members of his council of ministers will also take their oath on the same day. Meanwhile, posters featuring PM-designate Narendra Modi have been put up in Delhi ahead of his swearing-in ceremony. Around 1,100 traffic police personnel of the Delhi Police have been deployed and an advisory has been issued to the public for the traffic movement and route arrangements have been made for the delegates as part of the arrangements for Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi’s oath ceremony on Sunday. Several leaders and State heads of neighbourhood region and Indian Ocean region have been invited for PM Modi’s swearing-in ceremony as distinguished guests, a testament to India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in an official statement on Saturday said, “President of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe; President of Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu; Vice-President of Seychelles, Ahmed Afif; Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina; Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth; Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’; and Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay, have accepted the invitation to attend.”Apart from the leaders and state heads, more than 250 workers who were involved in the construction of the Parliament will also come to BJP leader Mansukh Mandaviya’s residence at 3 pm and go to the President’s house to participate in the oath-taking ceremony of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi. Meanwhile, highlighting the significance of the event, the MEA emphasised, “The visit of the leaders to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his third consecutive term is in keeping with the highest priority accorded by India to its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy and ‘SAGAR’ vision.”Additionally, the MEA mentioned that besides participating in the swearing-in ceremony, the leaders will also grace a banquet hosted by President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan, later in the same evening. PM Modi’s invitation to neighbouring leaders reflects India’s ongoing efforts to engage with countries in the region. In 2014, he convened leaders from SAARC nations, and in 2019, he invited countries from the BIMSTEC group. Meanwhile, Congress leader KC Venugopal said that the opposition leaders have not received any information from the government regarding the swearing-in ceremony of PM-designate Narendra Modi. The BJP got 240 seats and NDA has secured 292 seats out of 543 Lok Sabha seats. Congress fought the election as part of the INDIA bloc and the parties together were able to prevent BJP from getting a majority on its own in Lok Sabha. The Congress secured 99 seats. Samajwadi Party got 37 seats, while Trinamool Congress got 29. DMK managed to win 22 seats.
