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At a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA’s) parliamentary party on Friday morning, Prime Minister-Designate Narendra Modi said a spirit of concord and consensus will be the hallmark of his next government, which according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communiqué, will take the oath of office at 7.15 pm on Sunday.
Addressing the recently elected MPs of the NDA and leaders of the alliance after they unanimously elected him as their leader, the PM-Designate said he would strive to ensure unanimity in all decisions of his next government. Modi said “bahumat(majority)” is necessary to form a government but “sarvamat (consensus or unanimity)” is required for running the country.
The spirit of the coalition was the leitmotif of the ceremony and of Modi’s speech. Apart from the Modi and three leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party, nine leaders of as many allies flanked Modi. The PM-Designate often referred to the NDA while highlighting his government’s policies and programmes.
In his speech, the PM-Designate said the alliance is committed to the constitutional principle of “sarva panth sambhav (interfaith harmony)” and mutual trust was at the core of the bloc.
To underscore the diversity of the alliance, he said the NDA had governments in 22 states, including in 10 states where Scheduled Tribes were in significant numbers, and also in the states in the Northeast and Goa where Christians have a sizeable presence.
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He said the NDA government in the next 5 years will focus on good governance, development, quality of life, and minimum interference in the lives of common citizens. He said a priority would be to reduce the interference of the government in the lives of the people, especially those from the middle class and upper middle class.
Allies, such as Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N Chandrababu Naidu, described Modi as “the right leader at the right time for India”, but stressed the need to balance regional aspirations with national interest and “ensuring holistic development across all strata of society.” Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose party is keen to secure a “special category status” for the state, said: “We know you will take care of Bihar’s concerns.”
Later in the day, the NDA leaders called on President Droupadi Murmu, and submitted their letters of support for Modi. She declared Modi as Prime Minister-Designate.
"The President, having satisfied herself on the basis of the various letters of support received, that the BJP-led NDA alliance, which is also the largest pre-election alliance, is in a position to command majority support of the newly-constituted 18th Lok Sabha and to form a stable government, appointed Shri Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India, exercising powers vested in her under Article 75(1) of the Constitution of India," according to the communiqué from Rashtrapati Bhavan. In a post on X, the Rashtrapati Bhavan posted a picture of the President offering curd to Modi.
Addressing reporters in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Modi said: “The president has asked me to work as prime minister-Designate and informed me about the oath ceremony.” He further said that he had informed Murmu that he and others would be comfortable if the event was held on Sunday evening. Modi said Rashtrapati Bhavan will work out the details of the oath-taking ceremony on Sunday, by when he would hand over the list of the Council of Ministers to the President.
Modi also sought the blessings of veteran BJP leaders L K Advani and M M Joshi at their respective residences before reaching Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The ceremony is likely to be attended by a cross-section of people from across the country to highlight the government’s commitment to the poor, women, youth and farmers. According to reports, Asia's first loco pilot, Surekha Yadav, is one of the 10 loco pilots invited to the ceremony. Heads of state and government from India’s neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, will also attend.
At the outset of the NDA’s meeting in the morning in the Central Hall of the old Parliament, now called Samvidhan Sadan, Modi bowed before a copy of the Constitution placed there, and lifted it to his forehead reverentially. In the evening, he posted on X that “every moment” of his life “is dedicated to upholding the noble values enshrined in the constitution of India, given to us by Babasaheb Ambedkar.” “It is only due to the Constitution that a person like me born into poverty and in a backward family is able to serve the nation. Our constitution gives crores of people hope, strength and dignity,” he tweeted.
At the NDA meeting, BJP leader Rajnath Singh moved the resolution for electing Modi the NDA leader, which was seconded by his party colleagues Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari, and allies, including Janata Dal (Secular)’s H D Kumaraswamy, Naidu, Kumar, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas)’s Chirag Paswan, Apna Dal (Soneylal)’s Anupriya Patel, Jana Sena Party’s Pawan Kalyan, Hindustan Awam Morcha (Secular)’s Jitan Ram Manjhi, and others. However, Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Chaudhary, whose party has two MPs in the Lok Sabha, sat among the rest of the MPs and not alongside the PM-designate and other leaders.
In his speech, Modi said the numbers that the NDA has are evidence that it is the strongest coalition government in the history of coalitions. The reference was to the BJP’s 240 seats, the highest ever for the principal party in a coalition since 1996. He termed the NDA an “organic” and the most successful pre-poll alliance since its existence for nearly 30 years, out of which it has served out three full terms and is set to start the fourth.
Modi said he has been missing quality debates and participation in Parliament for 10 years and expressed hope that it may happen this time. He said he hopes opposition leaders will be guided by national interest. “They may be in opposition to us but not to the nation. I hope they will arrive in Parliament with the sentiment of national interest,” Modi said.
“There were efforts to not acknowledge this very victory, to cast a ‘shadow of defeat’ on this victory. But all such efforts remained fruitless... Such things 'die very young', and it happened,” Modi said. He said the NDA stands for New India, Developed India, Aspirational India, lauding the leading architects of the alliance, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, George Fernandes, Bal Thackeray, Sharad Yadav and Parkash Singh Badal.
“Our 10 years were just a trailer. We will work much harder and faster for the development of our country. People know that we will deliver,” Modi said. Taking a dig at the Congress, he said the Opposition party could not even touch the 100-seat mark, and that its total seats in the past three Lok Sabha polls were fewer than the BJP's tally in this election alone.
