Narendra Modi to take oath as Prime Minister of India today

He paid his tributes to the 'Father of the Nation' Mahatma Gandhi, late former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and soldiers killed in the line of duty.

In a grand ceremony, which is expected to be attended by 6000 invitees, including foreign dignitaries, Modi will take oath as the Prime Minister of India for a second consecutive term, a week after he won a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha polls.

President Ram Nath Kovind will administer the oaths of office and secrecy of Modi and his Cabinet.

Members of the BIMSTEC member-states-Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan- are scheduled to attend the event.

President of Bangladesh Md Abdul Hamid, his Sri Lankan counterpart Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Ministers of Mauritius and Nepal Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and KP Sharma Oli respectively will grace the function.

According to an MEA spokesman, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, President of the Kyrgyz Republic, U Win Myint, President of Myanmar, Dr Lotay Tshering, Prime Minister of Bhutan; and Grisada Boonrach, Special Envoy of Thailand have also confirmed their participation during the special occasion.

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, her son and Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh are going to attend the event.

The ceremony will take place at 7pm on Thursday.

The NDA this time has a strength of 353 MPs in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The BJP alone has 303 MPs.

In 2014, the then Pakistan Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif was one of the major invitees to have graced the occasion.

In fact, Sharif was the first Pakistani Head of the government to witness the formal takeover of his Indian counterpart.