On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India will take the oath of office for a third term, having been forced to form a coalition with other parties due to less than favourable election results.
The event at the presidential palace on Sunday evening (13:45 GMT) will be closely followed as about 30 future ministers take the oath on the constitution. Modi has not yet revealed the composition of this government.
Despite dominating for the last ten years, Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was unable to duplicate its two resounding victories this time, which surprised pundits and exit polls.
Instead, he was compelled to engage in urgent negotiations with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a coalition of 15 lawmakers that would provide him the necessary legislative majority to form a government.
Bigger coalition parties have made significant demands in return for their backing.
Days of “hectic talks” were reported by the Hindustan Times and the Times of India, respectively, with the BJP attempting to “pare down” the demands of its allies.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which has 16 seats and is the largest BJP ally, is rumoured to have extracted four cabinet jobs. With 12 seats, the Janata Dal (United), the next largest party, has negotiated two. Modi had 81 ministers in his last government.
“Off-limits”
However, there was widespread coverage in Indian media over the BJP’s hold on the top positions, which included the four most prominent positions in foreign, finance, military, and interior affairs.
According to the Times of India, “key ministries like home, defence, finance, and external affairs are off-limits.”
It implies that the new team would include senior Modi advisers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and Nitin Gadkari, who are the ministers of the interior, defence, and transportation, respectively.
According to analysts, the partnership will change legislative dynamics and compel Modi’s once-dominant BJP to adopt a little more accommodative stance.
The BJP has always had trust due to its overwhelming majority, according to Sajjan Kumar, the director of the PRACCIS political research organization in Delhi.
“The BJP will now be forced to participate in more consultations by the coalition.”
Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Zoya Hasan warned that Modi would be “meeting his match” in the “crafty politicians” Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP and Nitish Kumar of JD(U).
Rahul Gandhi is nominated by opposition.
As regional leaders arrived by plane on Sunday, hundreds of soldiers and police officers were stationed in the capital city of New Delhi.
Along with leaders from Bhutan, Nepal, and the Maldives, Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, and Ranil Wickremesinghe, the president of Sri Lanka, are expected to attend the ceremony and the state banquet that follows.
On Sunday, Modi paid his respects at the national war monument before laying flowers at the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation.
Rahul Gandhi, Modi’s main opponent, was nominated on Saturday to head the opposition in India’s parliament after he surprised observers by helping the Congress party almost treble its number of members in parliament.
Since Modi stormed to power a decade ago, it was the finest outcome for the Congress, pulling the party out of the electoral wilderness.
The Congress leadership met on Saturday and decided unanimously to support Gandhi’s appointment to the role of official opposition leader of India, which has been unfilled since 2014.
Gandhi is the son, grandson, and great-grandson of past prime ministers, starting with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru. His family controlled Indian politics for many years.
If he is elected, as predicted, he would take office as the official opposition leader of India when the new parliament convenes, which may happen as early as next week, according to predictions from the local media.
According to parliamentary rules, the leader of the opposition must represent a party that has a minimum of 10% of the 543 members in the lower house of representatives.
The position has been unfilled for ten years since Congress, which was previously the majority party in India, failed to meet the requirements in two disappointing election cycles.
