PM-elect Narendra Modi visits War Memorial ahead of swearing-in ceremony

BJP leader and Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi on Sunday morning visited the National War Memorial in the national capital ahead of his swearing-in ceremony to be held at Rashtrapati Bhawan this evening.

The PM-designate was accompanied by Rajnath Singh, the Defence Minister in the outgoing cabinet.

Earlier in the day, Modi offered tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat.

Modi will be sworn in as the Prime Minister of the country for the third consecutive term today at 7:15 PM.

He is the only leader after former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to have been elected for a third consecutive term after completing the full tenure of each previous term.

Alongside Narendra Modi, members of his council of ministers will also take their oath on the same day.

Ahead of the evening ceremony, posters featuring the PM-designate have been put up in Delhi.

Around 1,100 traffic police personnel of the Delhi Police have been deployed and an advisory has been issued to the public for the traffic movement and route arrangements have been made for the delegates as part of the arrangements for Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi’s oath ceremony on Sunday.

Several leaders and State heads of neighbourhood region and Indian Ocean region have been invited for PM Modi’s swearing-in ceremony as distinguished guests, a testament to India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in an official statement on Saturday said, “President of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe; President of Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu; Vice-President of Seychelles, Ahmed Afif; Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina; Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth; Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’; and Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay, have accepted the invitation to attend.

Apart from the leaders and state heads, more than 250 workers who were involved in the construction of the Parliament will also come to BJP leader Mansukh Mandaviya’s residence at 3 pm before heading to the President’s house to participate in the oath-taking ceremony.

Meanwhile, Congress leader KC Venugopal said that the opposition leaders have not received any information from the government regarding the swearing-in ceremony.

The BJP baggged 240 seats and the National Democratic Alliance has secured 292 seats out of 543 Lok Sabha seats. Congress fought the election as part of the INDIA bloc and the parties together were able to prevent BJP from getting a majority on its own in Lok Sabha.

The Congress secured 99 seats. Samajwadi Party got 37 seats, while Trinamool Congress got 29. DMK managed to win 22 seats.