JOIN USPresident Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday appointed Narendra Modi as the 15th leader to become Prime Minister, inviting him for the swearing-in ceremony on the evening of May 26.
The ceremony will be held on the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Earlier, the BJP Parliamentary Party and the NDA unanimously elected Modi as their leader.
A 15-member delegation of NDA leaders, headed by BJP president Rajnath Singh, met Mukherjee at 2:30 pm seeking formal invitation to form government. Singh was armed with letters of support from 29 NDA allies which together won 336 seats.
Later, Modi went on his own to meet Mukherjee and returned with the President’s government formation invite, which he—with much pride—flashed towards journalists waiting for an interaction at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
A Rashtrapati Bhavan communiqué acknowledged that the 282 MPs of the BJP itself allowed him to form government, though other NDA partners have also endorsed him as their leader.
“Narendra Modi has been elected BJP Parliamentary Party leader and the BJP has majority in the House of the People, the President appointed Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India,” a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement stated.
Congratulating Modi, Mukherjee asked him “to advise the names of others to be appointed members of the Council of Ministers”. Modi, who will take up the reins of government from Manmohan Singh after a decade of the UPA at the helm, will resign as Gujarat chief minister on Wednesday after presiding over a special Assembly session.
The delegation that met Mukherjee included L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Ananth Kumar and Thawar Chand Gehlot.
NDA leaders accompanying them included Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal of the SAD, Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP, Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena, the LJP’s Ram Vilas Paswan and Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio.
Addressing newly elected BJP MPs, Modi minced no words in conveying to those hankering after posts that they should work for people, not positions. “The new government will dedicate itself to the poor, youth and safety and security of our mothers and sisters. We all will work for them—you and I. I will not let you down,” he said.
He hailed democracy and the mandate received by the people for helping a person from a “humble background” to reach this stage.
Earlier, the BJP parliamentary party unanimously elected Modi as their leader, with Rajnath Singh presiding over the session and Advani proposing Modi’s name before 282 MPs. Ten senior leaders, including former presidents Murli Manohar Joshi, Nitin Gadkari and Venkaiah Naidu seconded the proposal.
The BJP chief said, “Narendra Modi had said in Hyderabad — Yes we can. As party president, I can say — Yes, he will. We have seen him perform in Gujarat. Our victory is also due to the proven track record of our state governments.”
On this “historic day”, Modi entered the iconic Central Hall of Parliament for the first time, that too for his election as the parliamentary party leader. The BJP leader was overcome with emotion and happiness as he enjoyed an electoral feat not achieved even by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.