New Delhi: Ahead of the eagerly anticipated swearing-in ceremony, Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi on Sunday interacted with 52 members of the NDA alliance, who are likely to be part of the council of ministers in the new government.
The NDA leaders gathered for the tea meeting at PM’s residence here at noon.
Among them were three MPs from Odisha – Dharmendra Pradhan, Jual Oram and Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Dharmendra won from Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat in a direct election after a gap of 15 years. He has been a key part of the Union Cabinet, holding the Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship portfolios. Prior to this, he also served as the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Jual was appointed as India’s first Union Minister for Tribal Affairs under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1999. He got a cabinet berth again in the Narendra Modi government in 2014, when he was the sole BJP MP in Odisha. He represented the Sundargarh parliamentary constituency for 3 terms from 1998 to 2004 and again in 2014 and 2019 before being elected again in 2024 elections by defeating hockey star Dilip Tirkey of BJD by a margin of over 1,3 lakh votes.
Vaishnaw was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha with the BJD’s support in February this year. He was serving as the Railway Minister in Modi 2.0 government since 2021.
Among the others who received the invite were Karnataka JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, JD(U)’s Ramnath Thakur, two TDP MPs Ram Mohan Naidu and Pemmasani Chandrasekhar, former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, Shiv Sena’s Prataprao Jadhav, Republican Party of India Rajya Sabha member Ramdas Athawale, and Chirag Paswan of Lok Janshakti Party.
Outgoing Union Ministers from BJP – Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, S Jaishankar, Piyush Goyal, Nitin Gadkari, Mansukh Mandaviya and Jyotiraditya Scindia – also attended. J P Nadda is also likely to be sworn-in as a minister. BJP’s C R Paatil, who is president of its Gujarat unit, Rao Inderjit Singh, Nityanand Rai, Bhagirath Choudhary and Harsh Malhotra may also be inducted as ministers. BJP MPs Jitin Prasada from Uttar Pradesh and Raksha Khadse from Maharashtra are also tipped to be part of the new government, sources said.
BJP leader V Somanna informed that 5 people from Karnataka, including him, will take oath as Union ministers. The other four are Nirmala Sitharaman, Prahlad Joshi, Shobha Karandlaje, and HD Kumaraswamy.
“…It is a very big thing for me that they (NDA) have chosen me in their cabinet even after losing the elections. Punjab has been given priority this time…I will prepare the ground for BJP to win the Assembly elections in 2027…Just 2 years ago, the people of Punjab rejected Congress, everyone knows the work that AAP is doing. So, people have only one option which is BJP…I would like to become the Chief Minister of Punjab if given a chance…” Ravneet Singh Bittu, the grandson of slain former Punjab chief minister and Congressman Beant Singh, told ANI.
He lost in Ludhiana by 20,942 votes to Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring. He had switched to the BJP ahead of the elections.
It was worth noting that Smriti Irani and Anurag Singh Thakur were not invited to the tea party at Modi’s residence. “Both (Smriti Irani and Anurag Singh Thakur) were not present in the NDA meeting. Irani lost, but Thakur won from Hamirpur. This is the first cabinet swearing-in, though. We will have more ministers inducted in the Modi 3.0,” The Mint reported, quoting BJP sources.
President Droupadi Murmu will administer the oath of office to Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhawan at 7.15 pm.
The Indian Express also shared a list of MPs, who are likely to be sworn-in as ministers in the evening. They are S Jaishankar, Nitin Gadkari, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitaraman, Kishan G Reddy, Kiren Rijiju, Bhupendra Yadav, Hardeep Singh Puri, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Manohar Lal Khattar, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Pralhad Joshi, Sarbanda Sonowal, Chirag Paswan, Suresh Gopi, H D Kumaraswamy, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Harsh Malhotra, Shripad Naik, Ajay Tamta, Ramnath Thakur, Ram Mohan Naidu, Dr Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Raksha Khadse, Ramdas Athawale, Jual Oram, Krishan Pal Gurjar, Shobha Karandlaje and Kamaljeet Sehrawat.
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