india

Updated: May 25, 2019 23:08 IST

President Ram Nath Kovind designated Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India late Saturday evening.

Modi later told reporters at the forecourts of Rashtrapati Bhavan that President Kovind has appointed him prime minister-elect and asked him to form the new government.

“Our government is committed to the development of a new India, especially when the country is going to celebrate 75 years of Independence,” he said.

Earlier in the evening, a National Democratic Alliance delegation led by Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, had met the President to hand him a letter stating that Modi had been elected leader of the BJP parliamentary party.

The President also asked Modi to provide details of appointed members of the Union Council of Ministers and indicate the date and time of the swearing-in-ceremony to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. “Exercising powers vested in him under Article 75 (1) of the Constitution of India, President Kovind, today appointed @narendramodi to the office of Prime Minister of India,” the social media handle of the office of the President tweeted.

“The President requested @narendramodi to i) advise him about the names of others to be appointed members of the Union Council of Ministers; and ii) indicate the date and time of the swearing-in-ceremony to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan,” the official Twitter handle further posted.

The BJP-led NDA won a majority of 353 seats in the recently concluded general elections.

Shortly before Modi met the President, an NDA delegation led by BJP president Amit Shah, and comprising BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari, besides NDA partners from different states, including Parkash Singh Badal of Akali Dal, K Palaniswami of the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Nitish Kumar of Janata Dal (United), Conrad Sangma of the National People’s Party in Meghalaya, and Ram Vilas Paswan of Lok Janshakti Party, also met the President to hand him letters of support for Modi.

A letter stating that Modi had been elected leader of the NDA parliamentary party was also handed over to the President.Earlier in the day, Modi was unanimously elected leader of the NDA at a meeting attended by its newly elected MPs and senior leaders in Parliament’s Central Hall.

“Modi is elected the leader of the parliamentary party of 353 MPs unanimously,” BJP president Amit Shah announced.

Top alliance leaders, including Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray extended their party’s support. Senior BJP leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were present on the dais with other alliance leaders.

Modi’s election was a mere formality as the NDA had already declared him the alliance’s prime ministerial candidate.

The NDA returned to power with a massive majority in the Lok Sabha elections with the BJP alone bagging 303 of total 542 seats contested. Elections were held in 542 of the 543 seats. The election in Vellore LS seat was cancelled by the EC citing abuse of money power. Meanwhile, the full Election Commission on Saturday called on President and handed over the list of 542 newly-elected members that will enable him to initiate the formal process of new government formation.

“Without any taint, he (Modi) has been elected as the country’s PM for the second term. This has been possible because he governed the country by rising above vote bank politics...,” Shah said.

Modi on Saturday asked newly elected MPs of the NDA to work without any discrimination, including on the basis of faith and castes. In his over 75-minute address after being elected the leader of the BJP-led NDA, Modi also stressed on the need to win over the trust of minorities, saying they were made to live in “fear” and “exploited” during elections for vote-bank politics.

With speculation rife over who will join his Council of Ministers, Modi said he was yet to go through details of all the NDA MPs and asked them to not trust media reports in this regard.