Amit Shah to hold meeting with Ministers selected for oath at PM’s residence, Oath-taking Ceremony to begin from 7 pm

New Delhi: Ahead of the PM swearing-in-ceremony today at the Rashtrapati Bhavan BJP National President Amit Shah will be holding a private meeting with the Ministers selected for the oath of office along with PM-elect Narendra Modi at PM residence at 4.30 on Thursday.

Earlier in the morning, the prime minister held a final round of consultations with BJP president Amit Shah to give shape to his council of ministers before sending the list to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Capping a landslide election victory, Modi will take oath along with his new council of ministers at 7 pm.

As the party geared up for the celebrations, Shah’s Akbar Road residence was decked up. BJP general secretary (organization) Ram Lal was among those who met Shah at his residence. Modi and Shah have held several rounds of discussions in the last two days ahead of government formation.

Other senior party leaders such as Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Narendra Singh Tomar, Prakash Javadekar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dharmendra Pradhan and Smriti Irani are also likely to join the meeting with PM-elect Narendra Modi.

The others tipped to get a ministerial berth to include Sadananda Gowda, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Jayant Sinha, Giriraj Singh, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Thawarchand Gehlot, Dilip Ghosh, Jitendra Singh and Purshottam Rupala.

Among some of the new faces that are likely to be inducted include Prahlad Patel from Madhya Pradesh, Kailash Chowdhry from Rajasthan, Krishna Reddy from Telangana and Suresh Angedi from Karnataka and Raosaheb Danve from Maharashtra.

BJP allies like Shiv Sena, JD(U), AIADMK, LJP, Akali Dal and Apna Dal are set to be represented in the government as well.

Each NDA ally is likely to get one cabinet berth, as per sources.

The Shiv Sena has confirmed its leader Arvind Sawant, who defeated Congress heavyweight Milind Deora from Mumbai, will be its nominee in the council of ministers. Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Badal, who was Food Processing minister in the earlier government, will be in the new council of ministers as well, sources said.

The Lok Janshakti Party has already passed a resolution recommending its president Ram Vilas Paswan as the party’s representative in the Modi government.

The Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel is likely to be in the council of ministers.

The JD-U is likely to nominate either Ram Nath Thakur or Santosh Kushwaha, sources said.

Earlier, Arun Jaitley on Wednesday wrote to PM-elect Narendra Modi requesting him to keep him out of the New Government which will be sworn in New Delhi today.

The swearing-in ceremony in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan is expected to be a grand affair with about 8,000 guests, including leaders from the BIMSTEC countries, opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, chief ministers, corporate honchos and film stars.