'Without a doubt'; Narendra Modi all set to lead third NDA government

NEW DELHI: The NDA alliance has chosen Narendra Modi as its leader in the meeting held as part of the government formation discussion on Wednesday. Modi will be sworn in as Prime Minister for the third time on Saturday. The NDA group led by Narendra Modi will soon meet the President and lay claim to government formation.

Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, J. P Nadda. Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar will meet President Droupadi Murmu. The indication from the nearest centres is that they will meet the President on June 7. Meanwhile, Telugu Desam Party President Chandrababu Naidu and JD(U) President Nitish Kumar have openly announced their support for Narendra Modi, thereby ending all ambiguities.

There are reports that Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP President JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah will lead the government formation discussions. In this election, NDA won 294 seats out of 543, making Modi the second leader to retain power for the third term after Jawaharlal Nehru.

On Tuesday, the Union Cabinet met under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister to review the election results. Matters related to the formation of the next government were also discussed. The BJP, which was firmly confident of winning 400 seats, had earlier started preparations for the swearing-in ceremony of the next government even before the results of the Lok Sabha elections were officially announced. Tenders had been invited for the supply of flowers required to decorate the venue where the Prime Minister and other ministers were supposed to arrive for the swearing-in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.