Narendra Modi who steered the BJP-led NDA to a stunning victory will be sworn in as Prime Minister on May 26 at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Mr. Modi, who met President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday was appointed as the Prime Minister by the President and was asked to advise the names of others to be appointed Members of the Council of Ministers.
Stepping out after his meeting with the President, he addressed the media briefly and held-up the formal letter of appointment as Prime Minister.
Minutes before Mr. Modi’s appointment, the NDA allies also met the President. BJP president Rajnath Singh giving details of the meeting said: “We had a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary party and we have adopted a unanimous resolution to elect Narendra Modi as our leader. All the NDA allies were also present.”
Mr. Singh said the BJP has support letters of 10 allies of the NDA, which includes 335 MPs. Referring to the swearing-in ceremony, he said as many as 3,000 people are expected to witness the swearing-in ceremony which take place in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan on May 26 at 6 p.m.
PTI adds
Emerging from the meeting with the President Pranab Mukherjee, Mr Modi said: “I came to call on the President. The President has given me a formal letter (of appointment as the PM) and has invited me for oath-taking ceremony on May 26 at 6 pm as we had earlier decided.”
Mr Modi’s call on the President came after he was unanimously elected leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party and later at a combined meeting of the BJP and its allies constituting the NDA as leader of the coalition.
Later, a Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said as Mr Modi has been elected leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party and BJP has majority support in the House of the People, the President appointed him the Prime Minister of India and requested him to advise the names of members of the council of ministers.
“The President will administer the oath of office and secrecy on May 26 at 6 pm at Rashtrapati Bhawan,” President’s spokesman Venu Rajamony said.
Earlier the President greeted Mr Modi on his landslide victory.
“Welcome, welcome, welcome,” Mukherejee said, receiving a bouquet from Modi.
Offering a bunch of flowers, he congratulated him on his “grand victory”.
Today’s scene was vastly different from the summer of 1996 when the then President Shankar Dayal Sharma appointed Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister of a minority government that fell in 13 days.
Later, after the 1998 and 1999 elections Mr Vajpayee was again called to form governments only after the then President K R Narayanan was satisfied with letters of support from parties backing the NDA coalition on the numbers.
Rajnath, Advani meet Pranab
Before Mr Modi’s meeting with the President, a delegation of NDA leaders led by Rajnath Singh and L K Advani called on the President to convey to him the decision of the BJP and the NDA parliamentary parties to choose Mr Modi as their leader.
“Today we had a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary party and we have adopted a unanimous resolution to elect Narendra Modi as our leader. All the NDA allies were also present.
“We have requested the President to invite Narendra Modi for the swearing—in as the Prime Minister,” Mr Singh told reporters at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.
