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PM Modi oath ceremony: Bangladesh and Sri Lankan leaders have already confirmed their presence.

New Delhi:

Narendra Modi is set to take oath as the Prime Minister for the third consecutive time on Saturday after his allies chose him as their leader at a key meeting in Delhi yesterday, sources told NDTV.

Top South Asian leaders have been invited to the oath ceremony, reflecting the government’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.

Bangladesh and Sri Lankan leaders have already confirmed their presence at Saturday’s event after speaking to PM Modi over the phone.

The media division of Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said he has accepted the invitation to attend Saturday’s event and also congratulated PM Modi for his electoral victory.

Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate PM Modi, reflecting the warmth and personal rapport between the two leaders. She will arrive in Delhi on Friday, a day before the event, according to Bangladesh media.

Formal invitations have also been sent to Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, his Bhutan counterpart Tshering Tobgay and Mauritius PM Pravind Jugnauth, reports suggest.

The BJP with 240 seats has fallen short of the halfway mark but the NDA has comfortably crossed the magic number, winning 293 out of 543 seats in the Lok Sabha.

The NDA partners, including Telugu Desam Party’s Chandrababu Naidu and Janata Dal-United boss Nitish Kumar, met at the Prime Minister’s residence yesterday and unanimously chose PM Modi as the leader of the alliance.

In 2014, the leaders of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries attended PM Modi’s swearing-in ceremony, and in 2019, the leaders of the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) countries attended his oath ceremony.