President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday dissolved the 16th Lok Sabha after the Chief Election Commissioner submitted the list of winners in the recently concluded general elections for the 17th Lok Sabha.

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, accompanied by Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra, called on President Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan to submit a copy of the notification issued by the ECI in terms of Section 73 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, containing the names of Members elected to the Lok Sabha.

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The President accepted the advice of Union Cabinet to dissolve the 16th Lok Sabha and signed the order.

The Order is in exercise of the powers conferred upon the President by Sub-clause (b) of Clause (2) of Article 85 of the Constitution.

President Kovind congratulated the ECE and the other ECs on the successful completion of the electoral process and of the largest democratic exercise in human history.

“The President appreciated the efforts of the Election Commission, its officials and members of its staff, other public officials, police and security personnel, for working tirelessly and diligently to uphold the sanctity of the people’s ballot, and a free and fair election,” the Rashtrapati Bhawan said in a statement.

“The President commended hundreds of millions of voters who participated in the election process in such large numbers. The President noted this was entirely in keeping with our Constitution and India’s deep and unshakeable democratic traditions,” the statement added.

On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on the President to tender his resignation as per protocol after the Union Cabinet passed a resolution to dissolve the 16th Lok Sabha.

“The President accepted the resignation and requested the Prime Minister and the Union Council of Ministers to continue in office till the new Government is formed,” read a tweet posted from the official Twitter handle of the President.

The PM is likely to take oath of office as the head of the new government on 30 May.

Union ministers, including External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, attended the Union Cabinet meeting which was chaired by the PM.

The meeting was held a day after the announcement of results of the General Elections of 2019 which brought BJP-led NDA to power for a second consecutive time.

The term of the present Lok Sabha ends on 3 June. The 17th Lok Sabha has to be constituted before that date.