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. Thousands were invited to the ceremony in Delhi, including regional leaders and Bollywood stars.
But notable names were excluded, including Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan, and some opposition leaders stayed away.
The election was seen as a referendum on Modi, who is adored by many but also accused of stoking divisions.
He ran a campaign dominated by his personal image and national security after tensions with Pakistan spiked in February in the disputed region of Kashmir.
The ceremony is taking place at the presidential palace, a colonial-era building in the centre of the capital.
A new cabinet has also been sworn in, and includes the chief of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Amit Shah is credited with steering the party to victory in the election, the results of which were announced last week.
A BJP-led alliance won 354 seats in the 545-member lower house, known as the Lok Sabha.
Modi retained his seat of Varanasi by a margin of nearly half a million votes. He has become the first leader since 1971 to secure a single party majority in back-to-back elections.
His government will be under pressure to deal with a slowdown in India’s economy and provide more jobs.
The new government suffered a blow on Wednesday when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said he was standing down for health reasons.
Foreign leaders and key opposition and regional politicians were in attendance, as were industrialists, Bollywood stars and sporting legends.
Pakistani leaders were not invited.
Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi – who led the main opposition that lost to Modi and the BJP – attended alongside his mother, Congress veteran Sonia Gandhi.
State leaders, some of whom who had run against the BJP in the elections, were also invited. Local media reported that an invitation had also been extended to Bill Gates.
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