Some of the newly elected lawmakers to meet PM Modi at 11.30 am: sources

Some of the newly elected lawmakers, who are likely to take oath as Union ministers in the third NDA government on June 9, have been asked to meet at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official residence in New Delhi at 11.30 am.

Sources said senior BJP leaders had called the meeting without disclosing the purpose, and that the lawmakers are likely to be appointed as Union ministers this evening.

Telugu Desam Party leader Ram Mohan Naidu will be inducted as a cabinet minister while another member of the party, Chandra Sekhar Penmasani, will be made a minister of state in the Modi 3.0 government, a senior party leader confirmed.

TDP leader and businessman Jayadev Galla posted congratulatory messages to both party leaders amid indications that other allies such as Ram Nath Thakur and Lallan Singh of the JD(U), Chirag Paswan of the LJP(R), Jitan Ram Manjhi of the HAM(S) and Jayant Chaudhary of the RLD are being considered as ministerial candidates.

Modi is due to be sworn in on Sunday for a third consecutive term as leader of the coalition government after two terms in which the BJP held a majority on its own. The 73-year-old will match the feat of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who won general elections in 1952, 1957 and 1962.

Leaders of India’s neighbouring countries and the Indian Ocean region are among the dignitaries and special guests expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers at the Presidential Palace at 7.15 pm.