Narendra Modi was today sworn in as India's prime minister for a third consecutive term at the head of a 71-member NDA coalition government after BJP failed to get a majority.

President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Modi at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, where an estimated 8,000 dignitaries attended, including Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, accompanied by her daughter Saima Wazed, and other top leaders of seven Saarc countries.

Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and billionaire industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani were also in audience.

Honoured to serve Bharat. Watch the oath-taking ceremony. https://t.co/i71ZYjQUvb

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 9, 2024

Modi, 73, is only the second person after India's independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru to serve a third straight term as prime minister.

Main opposition Congress party President Mallikarjun Kharge was present at the ceremony but its key INDIA bloc constituent Trinamool Congress stayed away from the event.

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Modi: the tea seller's son who became India's populist hero

Modi secured his third term in elections that concluded on June 1 with the support of 14 regional parties in his BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

This is the first time Modi is leading a coalition government after having been the PM for a decade when BJP enjoyed a commanding majority. Modi PM for the first time in May, 2014 and returned with a bigger mandate in 2019.

Modi's council of ministers consists of 30 cabinet ministers, five minister of state with independent charge and 36 ministers of state. It has representation from most parts of the country as well as social groups. It has 27 ministers from Other Backward Classes, 10 from Scheduled Castes, five from Scheduled Tribes and and an equal number from minorities.

A record 18 senior Ministers will be heading ministries, indicating that Modi has blended continuity and change to pick his new council of ministers.

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Modi's alliance unanimously elects him to lead as India's PM for third term

The new Modi ministry includes 43 ministers who have served three terms or more with 39 having been ministers at the Centre before.

Born to a poor tea seller in a backward caste family on September 17, 1950, Modi's political career started as an activist of Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the previous avatar of BJP, in 1965 and joined the party's spiritual fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1972. Modi was inducted in BJP in 1987.

Besides Hasina, Maldives President Md Muizzu, Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay and Vice-President of Seychelles Ahmed Afif also attended the oath-taking ceremony.

In addition to political leaders and eminent persons from different walks of life, members from the transgender community as well as sanitation workers and labourers, who were involved in the construction of India's new parliament building built in Modi's second stint as PM, also attended the ceremony.