President appoints Narendra Modi as PM-designate; oath on Sunday evening

NEW DELHI — Narendra Modi will take oath as the prime minister for a third consecutive term on Sunday evening as President Droupadi Murmu has invited him to form the government.

Murmu appointed Modi as the prime minister-designate on Friday after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief J P Nadda handed her a letter on Modi’s election as the leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party and NDA leaders submitted their letters of support.

The BJP won 240 seats in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls, falling short of the halfway mark in the 543-member House, but the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) together won 293 seats, which is a comfortable majority.

“The President, having satisfied herself on the basis of the various letters of support received, that the BJP-led NDA alliance, which is also the largest pre-election alliance, is in a position to command majority support of the newly-constituted 18th Lok Sabha and to form a stable government, appointed Shri Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India, exercising powers vested in her under Article 75(1) of the Constitution of India,” according to a communique from the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

The president will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the prime minister and other members of the Union Council of Ministers at 7:15 pm on Sunday at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the communique said.

Murmu handed over the letter of appointment to Modi, who called on her at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Friday evening.

Earlier, leaders of the BJP-led NDA called on Murmu and handed their letters of support for Modi to her.

Addressing reporters in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Modi said he has been appointed as the prime minister-designate by the president.

“The president has asked me to work as the prime minister-designate and informed me about the oath ceremony,” he said and added that he has informed Murmu that they will be comfortable if the event is held on Sunday evening.

Modi said the Rashtrapati Bhavan will work out the details of the oath-taking ceremony on Sunday, by when he would hand over the list of the Council of Ministers to the president.

“This 18th Lok Sabha is an important milestone towards fulfilling those dreams when the country will celebrate 100 years of independence in 2047,” he said.

The 18th Lok Sabha will be a House of new energy, youthful energy, and people have given the NDA government one more chance, Modi added.

The NDA delegation that called on Murmu was led by Nadda and included Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Ashwini Vaishnaw and C N Manjunath (all from the BJP), TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, JD(U) leaders Nitish Kumar, Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Sanjay Jha, Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, LJP(RV) leader Chirag Paswan, HAM(S) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, Jana Sena leader Pawan Kalyan, NCP leader Ajit Pawar, Apna Dal(S) leader Anupriya Patel, RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary, UPPL leader Joyanta Basumatary, AGP leader Atul Bora, SKM leader Indra Hang Subba, AJSU leaders Sudesh Mahto and Chandra Prakash Choudhary and Ramdas Athawale from the RPI(A).

Nadda handed over a letter to the president, stating that Modi has been elected as the leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party. The NDA leaders also handed over their letters in support of the BJP to Murmu.