Phir Ek Baar, Modi Sarkar! Prime Minister Narendra Modi was determined to be PM again for a third consecutive term, and he realized his will on Sunday by taking oath as head of a strong 71-member National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to Mr Modi and his Council of Ministers in the presence of a distinguished gathering, which included several leaders from India’s neighbourhood, Chief Ministers, members of Parliament and several thousand eminent personalities from different fields.

Mr Modi’s oath as Prime Minister was historic this time as he became the second Prime Minister after Mr Jawahar Lal Nehru to continue in the position for a third consecutive term. This was a turning point in India’s history, Mr Modi believed, and was sure his third term would continue India’s spectacular economic progress story.

Along with Mr Modi, the President sworn in Ministers, who included BJP stalwarts from the previous Narendra Modi government, like Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The others who took oath as Cabinet Ministers included Mr Pralhad Joshi, Mr Sarbananda Sonowal, Mr Jual Oram, Mr Giriraj Singh, Mr Virendra Kumar, Mr Ashwini Vaishnaw, Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia, Mr Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Ms Annapurna Devi, Mr Kiren Rijiju, Mr Hardeep Singh Puri, Mr G Kishan Reddy, Mr Chirag Paswan and Mr C R Patil,

A notable entry into the Narendra Modi Ministry as Cabinet Minister this time was BJP president J P Nadda, who played a crucial role not only in BJP’s poll campaign but also engaged in negotiations with alliance partners after results were declared.

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan was also inducted into the Union Cabinet in recognition of his role in ensuring BJP’s victory in all 29 Lok Sabha seats of the State. Mr H D Kumaraswamy (Janata Dal-S) from Karnataka and Mr Ram Mohan Naidu of Telugu Desam from Andhra Pradesh took oath as Cabinet Ministers.

Several Ministers from the previous government to continue in office included Mr Piyush Goyal, Mr Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Mr Jyotiradiya Scindia, Mr Giriraj Singh, Mr Mansukh Mandaviya, and Ms Anupriya Patel. Performance and representation determined the inclusion of existing Ministers in the new government.

The new Narendra Modi Ministry got a good representation from the BJP’s NDA partners like the Telugu Desam Party of Andhra Pradesh and the Janata Dal (U) from Bihar. There were 11 Ministers from BJP’s NDA allies.

Considering the vast sections of the society that the Council of Ministers represented, the Modi 3.0 government is a veritable people’s government. Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward classes and minorities had membership of the new government.

The Ministers of State (Independent charge) included Rao Inderjit Singh, Dr Jitendra Singh, Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal, Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav and Mr Jayant Chaudhary.

The Ministers of State included Mr Jitin Prasada, Mr Shripad Yesso Naik, Mr Pankaj Chaudhary, Mr Krishan Pal, Mr Ramdas Athawale, Mr Ram Nath Thakur, Mr Nityanand Rai, Ms Anupriya Patel, Mr V Somanna, Chandra S Pemmasani, Mr S P Singh Baghel, Ms Shobha Karandlaje, Mr Kirti Vardhan Singh, Mr B L Verma, Mr Shantanu Thakur, Mr Suresh Gopi, Dr L Murugan, Mr Ajay Tamta, Mr Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Mr Kamlesh Paswan, Mr Bhagirath Choudhary, Mr Sanjay Seth, Mr Ravneet Singh Bittu, Mr Durga Das Uikey, Ms Raksha Khadse, Mr Sukanta Majumdar, Mrs Savitri Thakur, Mr Tokhan Sahu, Mr Raj Bhushan Chaudhary, Mr Bhupathi Raju Srinivasa Varma, Mr Harsh Malhotra and Mr George Kurian

Bihar got sizable representation in the government as Jitan Ram Majhi (HAM), Chirag Paswan (LJP), Nityanand Rai, Satish Chandra Dubey, Ram Nath Thakur (JD-U), Giriraj Singh, Raj Bhushan Choudhary, Mr Lalan Singh (JD-U) were included in the new Central Ministry.

Uttar Pradesh got nine Ministers including Mr Rajnath Singh, Mr Jitin Prasada, Mr Pankaj Chaudhary, Ms Anupriya Patel, Mr B L Verma, Mr Jayant Chaudhary in the new Government. From Telangana, Mr Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Mr G Kishan Reddy were included.

Haryana got three nominees: Mr Krishan Pal Gujjar, Mr Rao Inderjit Singh, and former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Ravneet Singh Bittu from Punjab joined the government although he lost from Ludhiana. He was confident he would be able to work as a bridge between Punjab and Delhi and do work for Punjab. RPI leader Ramdas Athawale joined the government again.

Former President Ram Nath Kovind and Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud were present. Distinguished leaders of different faiths also attended the Rashtrapati Bhavan ceremony.

BJP stalwart Murli Manohar Joshi was seen talking with Telugu Desam leader Chandrababu Naidu. Mr Nitish Kumar was also present. From the Opposition, Mr Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, attended the ceremony.

The PM paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat and to late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Sadaiv Atal early morning. He invited his Council of Ministers for tea at his residence and told the team that their focus has to be on the 100 day agenda, and that the development story of the past 10 years must continue.

It was learnt the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) wanted a Cabinet post to join the Ministry. The Telugu Desam too expected more Ministries. Maharashtra has got good representation in the Ministry.