After a stupendous victory in the Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi took oath for the second consecutive time as the prime minister, along with his council of ministers, at the majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan Forecourt in New Delhi this evening.
Over 8,000 guests including a number of heads of states, heads of governments, constitutional authorities, diplomats, senior political leaders, and government officials are attending the ceremony.
Here are the Live updates from Rashtrapati Bhavan:
9: 10 pm: In a balancing act, two dominant communities of Karnataka–Lingayats and Vokkaligas– have been accommodated in the Narendra Modi-led new council of ministers. D V Sadananda Gowda and Pralhad Joshi, who were Karnataka BJP presidents, along with Belgaum MP Suresh Angadi have found a place in the new ministry.
9:02 pm: Nityanand Rai, Rattan Lal Kataria, V Muraleedharan, Renuka Singh Saruta and Som Parkash take oath as ministers of state
9 pm: Maneka Gandhi is also not part of the new council of ministers. According to reports, she will be made the interim speaker.
8:58 pm: Newly-elected MP from Balasore, Odisha, Pratap Chandra Sarangi takes oath as minister.
8:57 pm: Piyush Goyal, the 54-year-old former union railway and coal minister, was sworn in on Thursday into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new council of ministers. Read more about him here.
8: 53 pm: Thawar Chand Gehlot, a prominent Dalit face of the BJP, has made his way to the Narendra Modi cabinet for a second consecutive time. Gehlot was appointed as the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment during the Modi government’s first stint in 2014.
8: 44 pm: The exclusion of the Apna Dal from the Modi government has left the party ‘hurt and upset. IANS reported that Apna Dal leaders were sure that Anupriya Patel would not only be included in the government but would also be elevated to, at least, minister of state with independent charge.
8: 43 pm: Full list of Narendra Modi’s Council of Ministers:
PRIME MINISTER
Narendra Modi
UNION MINISTERS
1. Rajnath Singh
2. Amit Shah
3. Nitin Gadkari
4. DV Sadananda Gowda
5. Nirmala Sitharaman
6. Ram Vilas Paswan, LJP
7. Narendra Singh Tomar
8. Ravi Shankar Prasad
9. Harsimrat Kaur Badal
10. Thawar Chand Gehlot
11. S Jaishankar
12. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank
13. Arjun Munda
14. Smriti Irani
15. Dr Harshavardhan
16. Prakash Javadekar
17. Piyush Goyal
18. Dharmendra Pradhan
19. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
20. Prahlad Joshi
21. Mahendra Nath Pandey
22. Arvind Sawant, Shiv Sena
23. Giriraj Singh
24. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
MINISTERS OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE)
25. Santosh Kumar Gangwar
26. Rao Inderjit Singh
27. Shripad Yesso Naik
28. Jitendra Singh
29. Kiren Rijiju
30. Prahlad Singh Patel
31. Raj Kumar Singh
32. Hardeep Singh Puri
33. Mansukh Lal Mandaviya
MINISTERS OF STATE
34. Faggan Singh Kulaste
35. Ashwini Kumar Chaubey
36. Arjun Ram Meghwal
37. VK Singh
38. Krishanpal Gurjar
39. Raosaheb Danve
40. GK Reddy
41. Parshottam Rupala
42. Ramdas Athawale
43. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti
44. Babul Supriyo
45. Sanjiv Kumar Baliyan
46. Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre
47. Anurag Thakur
8:36 pm: The new government has 24 cabinet ministers.
8:35 pm: Bureaucrat-turned politician and second time Lok Sabha member from Arrah in Bihar, R K Singh was inducted into the council of ministers of new Modi government.
8: 34 pm: Nine ministers of state with independent charge take oath in Modi government
8: 34 pm: Faggan Singh Kulhaste, Ashwini Choubey, Arjun Meghwal, V K Singh take oath as ministers of state.
8:31 pm: From Bollywood, Sidharth Roy Kapur, President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India, Vivek Oberoi, Anupam Kher, Madhur Bhandarkar and producer Boney Kapoor attended the event at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
8:30 pm: Senior BJP leader and eight-time MP Maneka Gandhi is likely to be the pro-tem speaker in the 17th Lok Sabha elections.
8:24 pm: Ex-ministers Suresh Prabhu, Jayant Sinha and Manoj Sinha dropped by Modi.
8: 18 pm: Kiren Rijiju, Prahlad Singh Patel, R K Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri and Mansukh Lal Mandaviya take oath as MoS with independent charge.
8:15 pm: In a major surprise, Sushma Swaraj, one of the senior-most leaders of the BJP, was among seven ministers of the previous Council of Ministers to be dropped as Prime Minister Narendra Modi formed his government for the second term.
8:14 pm: Celebrating the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a salon and spa owner in Bengaluru gave free haircuts to over 150 people today.
(THIS ARTICLE IS REFERRED FROM LIVE MINT WITHOUT ANY CHANGES ONLY TITLE IS DIFFERENT)