Exactly 10 years ago today, Narendra Modi took oath as India’s 15th Prime Minister after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s big win in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
While addressing a public rally on Monday, May 26, in Gujarat’s Dahod, PM Modi said, “Today is May 26. On the same date in 2014, I took the oath as the Prime Minister for the first time… First, the people of Gujarat blessed me, then crores of Indians blessed me…” On May 26, 2014, Prime Minister Modi took oath as the 15th Prime Minister of India. He took oath as a grand ceremony held in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Modi’s swearing-in ended the ten-year-long tenure of the Indian National Congress and marked a major shift in India’s national politics.Clad in his trademark kurta and waistcoat, with a pen clipped neatly into his pocket, Narendra Modi, then 63, took the oath in Hindi. With this, PM Modi became the first Indian PM to have been born after Independence.
Modi became Prime Minister after the BJP won a big majority in the 2014 elections, winning 282 seats on its own — something no party had done since 1984. The NDA’s total reached 336, while Congress was left with just 44 seats.
A major highlight of the swearing-in was the presence of leaders from South Asian countries, including Pakistan’s then PM Nawaz Sharif, Sri Lanka’s Mahinda Rajapaksa, and Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai.
After taking office, PM Modi introduced a smaller Cabinet, following the idea of ‘minimum government, maximum governance’. Unlike the previous UPA government with over 75 ministers, Modi chose a 45-member team — 23 Cabinet Ministers, 10 Ministers of State with Independent Charge, and 12 Ministers of State.