NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi, who steered BJP and the NDA to a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha election, was appointed Prime Minister on Tuesday, ushering in a new era of a non-Congress government with an absolute majority on its own in 30 years.
“I came to call on the President. The President has given me a formal letter (of appointment as the PM) and has invited me for oath-taking ceremony on May 26 at 6pm as we had earlier decided,” Modi told reporters after meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee.
Modi’s call on the President came after he was unanimously elected leader of the BJP parliamentary party and later at a combined meeting of the BJP and its allies constituting the NDA as leader of the coalition.
Later, a Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said: “… As Modi has been elected leader of the BJP parliamentary party and BJP has majority support in the House of the People, the President appointed him the Prime Minister of India and requested him to advise the names of members of the council of ministers.”
“The President will administer the oath of office and secrecy on May 26 at 6pm at Rashtrapati Bhawan,” the President’s spokesman Venu Rajamony said.