50-60 ministers, 8-10 from allies, likely to take oath with Modi today

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi on Thursday visited the National War Memorial at India Gate and paid tribute to the jawans who laid down their lives for the country post-independence before taking oath as PM for the second stint on the trot.
Outgoing defence minister and BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman also accompanied Modi along with Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba and Vice Chief of Air Force Air Marshal RKS Bhadauria. Earlier, Modi also paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, one of the founding fathers of BJP.
Modi’s visit to the War Memorial before taking charge in his second innings will only testify the ruling party’s nationalist agenda, one of its key planks in the Lok Sabha polls. Top party leaders spent the whole of Wednesday deliberating on who will make the cut for the Modi cabinet as also the portfolios. BJP president Amit Shah had two rounds of meetings with the Prime Minister, each lasting over three hours, for the second consecutive day.
Shah’s 11 Akbar Road residence turned out to be the destination of all senior leaders of BJP just as Gujarat Bhavan was in 2014, where Modi had put up.
Besides Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Arjun Ram Meghwal called on Amit Shah. Principal secretary to PM Nripendra Misra and additional principal secretary to the PM PK Mishra also met the BJP chief, possibly to discuss arrangements for the gala oath-taking ceremony.
Sources said Shah may join the Modi cabinet and a few others from the party organisation may follow suit. Sources said some of the leaders who have been part of the campaign and internal strategy teams may be rewarded for the hard work after the party’s thumping victory.
Sources said at least 50-60 ministers will be sworn in on Thursday, including 8-10 from NDA allies, and there might be another expansion soon as the maximum strength could be of 81 ministers, which is 15% of the strength of the Lok Sabha.
Increased representation from states like West Bengal and Odisha is quite likely and larger number of MPs from Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana, where assembly polls are due later this year, are likely to make it to the Council of Ministers.
President Ram Nath Kovind will administer the oath of office and secrecy to ministers at the function which will be attended by heads of government and representatives from BIMSTEC countries besides Prime Minister of Mauritius and President of Kyrgystan, who is also the chair of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
State chief ministers, including those running non-BJP governments, and captains of industry will be among the few thousand guests at the swearing in function. Several overseas friends of BJP, including from the US, Australia, Germany and the UK, have been invited.
In Video:50-60 ministers likely to take oath with Modi today.