India’s Narendra Modi was sworn in for a third term as prime minister on Sunday, days after the ruling coalition led by the 73-year-old won the general election, although his Bharatiya Janata Party ran short of an outright majority for the first time since he took office in 2014.
Modi’s party and its partners, including the Telugu Desam Party, which won 16 seats, agreed to form the government after the official results of the seven-phased general election, which began in mid-April, showed they won 292 out of the 543 seats up for grabs in the lower house.
Another partner, Janata Dal (United), which won 12 seats, joined the ruling camp right before the start of the election after leaving the opposition coalition consisting of the Indian National Congress and other parties. The opposition coalition secured 233 seats in a stronger-than-expected showing.
Appointed by President Droupadi Murmu, Modi took the oath of office as India’s 17th prime minister in a ceremony held in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential residence.
Modi is expected to focus on improving unemployment and inflation as the ruling bloc’s poor performance was blamed on the widening gap between the rich and the poor in a country that achieved 8.2 percent growth in gross domestic product last fiscal year.
He is expected to maintain India’s traditional amicable relations with Russia as well as stress cooperation with the United States under the Quad four-way security dialogue framework that also involves Japan and Australia. The framework is widely considered a counterweight to China.
BY: The Times Union / kyodo
