NEW DELHI: India’s Presidential House on the Raisina Hills is all set to host the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi on Monday, with the organisers expecting an attendance of over 4,000 guests, including the heads and envoys of seven other SAARC nations and Mauritius.
This could easily turn out to be the biggest swearing-in ceremony of a Prime Minister till date, as on previous occasions when Chandrasekhar in 1990 and Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998 took oath had about 1,200 to 1,300 guests, according to President’s Secretary Omita Paul.
The much large number of guests till date have been during the ‘At Home’ hosted by the Presidents on the occasion of the annual Republic Day, when 1,500 to 2,000 guests attended, she told reporters here on Sunday.
Modi, who will take oath along with his council of ministers, will first visit Raj Ghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi on Monday morning, before he goes to the Rastrapati Bhavan for the swearing-in ceremony when President Pranab Mukherjee will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the new government.
This will be the first single-party majority government in three decades, with the BJP having won 282 seats on its own, though the government will be of the 29-party National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which won 336 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats.
This is the first time that heads of SAARC nations will be attending such a function, apart from invitations to all 777 members from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Governors and Chief Ministers of all states, diplomats, envoys and other constitutional heads would be attending the function, besides a battery of over 350 journalists.
Outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi too are likely to be present besides members of the UPA-II Cabinet.
“With the gathering (for Modi’s swearing-in) expected to be around 4,000 people, it was a huge logistical challenge for us and we enjoyed it,” Omita said.
However, she said there was no information about Modi’s family members attending the ceremony or about the size of his council of ministers. “We have not been told anything about who will be sworn-in along with the Prime Minister,” Omita said.
As the weatherman forecasted thundershowers on Monday, the Rastrapati Bhavan hoped there would be no rain during the swearing-in, as no other place inside the presidential house, including the Durbar Hall, had seating-cum-standing capacity for over 900 guests.