Modi to take oath as PM for third time on Sunday: Joshi

New Delhi, Jun 7 (PTI) Narendra Modi will take oath as Prime Minister for the third time on Sunday, senior BJP leader Pralhad Joshi said here at the NDA parliamentary party meeting.

The oath-taking ceremony will take place at 6 pm on June 9, Joshi told the NDA leaders assembled here at the Central Hall of the old Parliament Building to elect Modi as their leader.

Besides NDA MPs, senior leaders of the alliance, including chief ministers, were present for the meeting where BJP president J P Nadda is expected to propose a resolution in support of Modi’s leadership, with allies and MPs likely to endorse it.

After Modi is elected the leader of NDA MPs, senior members of the alliance like TDP’s N Chandrababu Naidu, JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar and Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde will join the prime minister for a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu to present her the list of parliamentarians supporting him, some alliance members said.

Besides Naidu, Kumar and Shinde, Chirag Paswan, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Anupriya Patel, Pawan Kalyan were among the NDA leaders present on the main dais, alongside senior BJP leaders.

The NDA has 293 MPs, comfortably above the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

Senior BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nadda, have also been holding deliberations with allies to work out an amicable formula for their share of representation in the new government, which will critically depend on them for survival.

The BJP leadership has moved swiftly since the June 4 results for government formation to end any sense of uncertainty after the verdict, which was a setback to the ruling party as it lost majority for the first time since 2014 and needs allies’ support to maintain its hold on power.