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 favorable election results.
The ceremony 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 analysts 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 parliamentary 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 their allies.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which has 16 seats and is the largest BJP ally, is rumored 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 previous government.
Rahul Gandhi is nominated by opposition
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 position of official opposition leader of India, which has been unfilled since 2014.
Gandhi is the son, grandson, and great-grandson of former prime ministers, starting with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru. His family controlled Indian politics for many years.
If he is elected, as predicted, he will 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 because Congress, which was previously the majority party in India, failed to meet the requirements in two disappointing election cycles.
