Excerpt: While Telangana MPs G Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay Kumar took the oath in Hindi, Rao Inderjeet From Haryana and Jayant Chaudhary from UP read out their oath In English.
NDA 3.0 Swearing-In:
Narendra Modi has become the second prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru in 77 years of Independence to secure a third consecutive term. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to him Sunday at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. Senior BJP leaders such as Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Amit Shah, S Jaishankar, and Nirmala Sitharaman also took oath as cabinet ministers.
While most of the MPs from southern states took their oath in English, BJP MPs from Telangana, G Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and Narasapuram MP Bhupathi Raju Srinivas Varma from Andhra Pradesh took everyone by surprise by taking their oath in Hindi, which was largely the choice of language for most of the other MPs who took oath Sunday.
Among those who took the oath in English were Rajya Sabha MPs Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, JD(S) MP HD Kumaraswamy (Mandya), and V Somanna (Tumkur). L Murugan, who lost the Lok Sabha election from Nilgiris to DMK’s A Raja but was sworn in Sunday, and Kerala BJP leader George Kurian, who is not a member of Parliament but was still picked by the NDA, also took their oath in English.
VIDEO | Modi 3.0 Swearing-in Ceremony: BJP leader Rao Inderjit Singh (@Rao_InderjitS) sworn-in as Union Minister at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/jSo4Y5T5qB
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 9, 2024
#WATCH | TDP Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu takes oath as a Union Cabinet Minister in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government pic.twitter.com/8UjzEjuUKj
— ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2024
#WATCH | BJP leader Dr S Jaishankar takes oath as a Union Cabinet Minister in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government pic.twitter.com/Bp5aN1Ad0f
— ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2024
#WATCH | JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy sworn in as Union Minister in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government pic.twitter.com/N5zBWhppLz
— ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2024
VIDEO | Modi 3.0 Swearing-in Ceremony: BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) takes oath as minister in the Union Cabinet. pic.twitter.com/k6b7lt75im
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 9, 2024
So did actor-turned-politician and first-time minister Suresh Gopi, the newly elected Thrissur MP who is also the first BJP representative from Kerala.
Others who took the oath in English were BJP MPs Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad, Karnataka), Rao Inderjeet Singh (Gurgaon), Shantanu Thakur (Bongaon, West Bengal), and Sukanta Majumdar (Balurghat, WB); Rajya Sabha MP Jayant Chaudhary (RLD); BJP’s Ravneet Singh Bittu, who lost the Lok Sabha election from Ludhiana but was picked; and Assam BJP leader Pabitra Margherita, a surprise choice.
Star-Studded Swearing-In
Several foreign dignitaries were present at the swearing-in ceremony. They included Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Nepal PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, Mauritius PM Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, Bhutanese PM Tshering Tobgay, and Vice-President of Seychelles Ahmed Afif.
Also present were actors Shahrukh Khan and Rajinikanth, besides industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani.
Modi’s third term did not come with the overwhelming majority that the BJP had been expecting, or claiming. Unlike the last two terms, the party did not even get a majority on its own, settling for 240 seats out of the total 543. As a result, it has had to depend on NDA partners TDP and JDU, which helped the NDA cross the magic number of 272 with their 16 and 12 seats, respectively.
The BJP-led NDA won 293 seats in all.
