Bangladesh premier Sheikh Hasina and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe are among the foreign leaders to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister for a third consecutive term, agencies reported.
Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck will also attend the swearing-in ceremony. Mauritius PM Pravind Jugnauth is also likely to be invited.
Modi is likely to take oath on June 8 at 8 pm as the BJP-led NDA scraped past the majority mark to win 293 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, sources said. The opposition INDIA bloc, defying exit poll predictions, secured 234 seats.
After the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, India invited leaders of BIMSTEC countries to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Modi. The BIMSTEC, a regional grouping, includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
As many as 8,000 guests, including VVIPs, attended the event in 2019.
In 2014, when Modi was sworn-in for his first term, all the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) leaders, including the then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, attended the ceremony.
On Wednesday, PM-elect Modi called Ranil Wickremesinghe and invited him to the swearing-in ceremony, PTI reported quoting sources.
"During the conversation, Prime Minister @narendramodi invited President Wickremesinghe to his swearing-in ceremony, which President @RW_UNP accepted," the Sri Lankan President's office said.
Modi also had a phone conversation with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the two leaders vowed to continue working together to achieve the vision of 'Viksit Bharat 2047' and 'Smart Bangladesh 2041', ANI reported.
Sheikh Hasina, who was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate Modi on NDA's win, accepted the invite to attend his swearing-in ceremony.
The formal invitations to the foreign leaders will be sent on Thursday
In 2019, 24 Union ministers took oath today along with Narendra Modi. Twenty-four ministers of state (MoS) and 9 MoS (independent charge) were also sworn in by the President at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
This time the Modi 3.0 Cabinet is likely to see greater representation from its allies as the BJP fell short of achieving a majority on its own.
