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Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi is set to take oath on Sunday for a third straight term as the head of a coalition government after two full tenures in which the BJP enjoyed a majority on its own.
Modi, 73, will be equalling the feat of first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who won in 1952, 1957 and 1962 general elections.
Telugu Desam Party Lok Sabha members from Andhra Pradesh, K Ram Mohan Naidu and Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani are likely to be inducted into the Union Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that would be sworn in on Sunday.
According to a post on X by former TDP MP Galla Jayadev, Naidu, Srikakula Lok Sabha member will get a cabinet minister post while Pemmasani, Guntur MP, would get a minister of state berth.
Modi has retained power but with a surprising below-par show by the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls as its seat tally fell to 240 from 303, considerably short of the majority mark of 272.
Principal opposition Congress said this evening that its leaders are yet to receive invitations for the swearing-in ceremony, while Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee announced that her party would not attend the event.
Senior BJP leaders such as Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh besides party president J P Nadda have been consulting the allies, including Telugu Desam Party’s N Chandrababu Naidu, JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar and Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde, to finalise their share of representation in the government.
There is a view that heavyweight portfolios like home, finance, defence and external affairs besides education and culture, two ministries with strong ideological hues, will be kept by the BJP, while its allies can get anywhere between five to eight cabinet berths.
While leaders like Shah and Singh are seen within the party as a certainty in the new Cabinet, former chief ministers who have won the Lok Sabha polls like Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Basavaraj Bommai, Manohar Lal Khattar and Sarbananda Sonowal are strong contenders for joining the government.
Ram Mohan Naidu of the TDP, Lalan Singh, Sanjay Jha and Ram Nath Thakur of the JD(U), and Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) are among the allies who may be a part of the new government, the sources said, adding that either Singh or Jha will be accommodated from the JD(U) quota.
Source: Modi Cabinet 2024: Full list of Cabinet Ministers in Narendra Modi Government 3.0