Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi is set to take oath on Sunday for a third consecutive term as the head of a coalition government. This marks Modi's third term following two full tenures where the BJP held a majority on its own. At 73, Modi will equal the record of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who won in the 1952, 1957, and 1962 general elections.
The BJP, while retaining power, saw a surprising drop in its Lok Sabha seat tally, falling from 303 to 240, below the majority mark of 272. Despite this, Modi's coalition government, the NDA, remains poised to govern with support from allies.
Key allies such as Telugu Desam Party (TDP) members K Ram Mohan Naidu and Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani from Andhra Pradesh are expected to be inducted into the Union Cabinet. Senior BJP leaders, including Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, along with party president J P Nadda, have been in discussions with allies like TDP’s N Chandrababu Naidu, JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar, and Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde to finalise cabinet representation.
The BJP is expected to retain crucial portfolios such as home, finance, defence, external affairs, education, and culture, while allocating five to eight cabinet positions to its allies. Confirmed BJP members in the new Cabinet include Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, alongside former chief ministers like Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Basavaraj Bommai, Manohar Lal Khattar, and Sarbananda Sonowal.
Allies likely to join the government include Ram Mohan Naidu of TDP, Lalan Singh and Ram Nath Thakur of JD(U), and Chirag Paswan of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).
The following leaders have received invitations from Prime Minister Modi and are most likely to take oath as ministers in the NDA government 3.0: Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu from TDP representing Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh; Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, also from TDP, as MoS for Guntur, Andhra Pradesh; Prataprao Jadhav from Shiv Sena representing Buldhana, Maharashtra; Ramnath Thakur from JD (U) as a Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar; H D Kumaraswamy from JD (S) representing Mandya, Karnataka; Arjun Ram Meghwal from BJP representing Bikaner, Rajasthan; Sarbananda Sonowal from BJP representing Dibrugarh, Assam; Jitan Ram Manjhi from HAM representing Gaya, Bihar; Suresh Gopi from BJP representing Thrissur, Kerala; Hardeep Singh Puri from BJP representing Punjab; Ravneet Singh Bittu from BJP also representing Punjab; Nitin Gadkari from BJP representing Nagpur, Maharashtra; Piyush Goyal from BJP representing Mumbai North, Maharashtra; Ramdas Athawale from RPI(A) representing Maharashtra; Raksha Khadse from BJP representing Raver, Maharashtra; Dharmendra Pradhan from BJP representing Sambalpur, Odisha; Pralhad Joshi from BJP representing Dharwad, Karnataka; Bandi Sanjay Kumar from BJP representing Karimnagar, Telangana; Harsh Malhotra from BJP representing East Delhi, Delhi; Shripad Naik from BJP representing North Goa, Goa; Ajay Tamta from BJP representing Almora, Uttarakhand; S Jaishankar from BJP as a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat; Mansukh Mandaviya from BJP; Ashwini Vaishnaw from BJP; Nirmala Sitharaman from BJP; Jitendra Singh from BJP; Shivraj Singh Chauhan from BJP; Chirag Paswan from LJP(RV); Rajnath Singh from BJP; Jyotiraditya Scindia from BJP; Kiren Rijiju from BJP; Giriraj Singh from BJP; Jayant Choudhary from RLD; Annamalai from BJP; ML Khattar from BJP; G Kishan Reddy from BJP; Chandrashekhar Choudhary from AJSU; Jitin Prasad from BJP; Pankaj Chaudhary from BJP; BL Verma from JDU; Lalan Singh from AD; Anupriya Patel from BJP; Annapurna Devi from BJP; Kamaljeet Sehrawat from BJP; and Rao Inderjeet Singh from BJP.
