Narendra Modi to stake claim to form govt today

Narendra Modi is set to meet President Pranab Mukherjee today to stake claim to form the next government.

Prior to that, the BJP parliamentary party will officially declare Modi as the leader of the parliamentary party at its meeting today afternoon. MPs of other NDA partners will then join the meeting to give their assent to Modi as their leader.

The swearing-in ceremony could take place at the end of the week, sources said.

Meanwhile, many rivals and fence-sitters, both within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and outside, made a beeline for Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi to either extend a hand of friendship or indicate their surrender to his leadership.

On Monday, Modi continued to meet political leaders and bureaucrats as part of his consultations to give shape to his government. Among those he met on Monday were BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Home Secretary Anil Goswami.

Modi spent Sunday and Monday deciding on the contours of his Cabinet. A dozen of the Cabinet ministers are likely to be sworn in along with him later this week. Modi and his advisors have been trying to get the regional, caste, religion and gender balance of the Cabinet right so that it reflects a pan-Indian picture.

Modi, going by his years as Gujarat CM, is likely to keep his Cabinet lean. The 91st amendment to the Constitution, enacted in 2003, warrants the total number of ministers, including the Prime Minister or Chief Minister, in the council of ministers doesn’t exceed 15 per cent of the total number of members of the Lok Sabha or a Vidhan Sabha. Modi’s cabinet in Gujarat had 17 ministers in a House of 180, that is barely 10 per cent. The outgoing UPA government’s council of minister was filled to the brim with 71 ministers. The need to accommodate allies, the Shiv Sena, Lok Janshakti Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal and other National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the Cabinet, however, is unlikely to give Modi the space to keep his council of ministers as lean as in Gujarat.

Swaraj, leader of Opposition in the dissolved Lok Sabha, called on Modi at Gujarat Bhawan, where the latter has encamped since Saturday evening. Swaraj and Modi haven’t been on the best of terms. Swaraj went to meet Modi after a meeting with BJP President Rajnath Singh. Swaraj had met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leadership on Sunday evening. Modi had met senior leader L K Advani on Sunday. Later in the day, Goswami briefed Modi about the security situation in the J&K and the Naxal-affected areas.

The home ministry termed the 30-minute long meeting a “familiarisation exercise”. Goswami also briefed Modi about the process of division of Andhra Pradesh, from which two states will be carved out on June 2.

Among the fence-sitters, YSR (Yuvajana Sramik Raithu) Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy called on Modi. Reddy, whose party emerged as the main rival to the BJP-Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Seemandhra, had remained non-committal about his support to a Modi-led government during the election campaign.

On Monday, Reddy met Modi along with senior leaders of the party. He said the YSR Congress would give Modi government “issue-based support”. "Andhra Pradesh requires him (Modi)," Reddy said. To a question whether his party, which has nine MPs in the Lok Sabha, would join the NDA, Reddy said: "The fact is that they already have 282 MPs and they don't need the support of any of us.”

There were friendly noises coming from the Trinamool Congress also. Senior party leader Saugata Roy said: "We are in the opposition. When the Modi government takes office, it's not good opposing it very strongly from the beginning."

In Hyderabad, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MLA K T Rama Rao told PTI that his party government would do everything in its capacity to ensure a good and healthy relationship with the Centre and expressed the hope that the latter would be supportive of the newly formed Telangana. He said Modi rang up Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday, congratulated him on the TRS victory and invited him to attend his swearing-in ceremony.

The RSS headquarters also continued to receive a constant stream of visitors. Modi's close aide Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley met the RSS leadership. On Sunday, Jaitley had also attended an event organised by yoga guru Swami Ramdev. Jaitley had lauded “the role played by Ramdev in awakening voters” and said it was similar to the struggles of Mahatma Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan.

Shah spent nearly two hours in discussions with the RSS brass. BJP leaders dismissed suggestions that their meetings with the RSS had anything to do with cabinet formation and termed these “courtesy calls”. Others who paid a visit to the RSS office were newly elected BJP MPs former Home Secretary R K Singh, Udit Raj and Manoj Tiwari. Senior UP leader Vinay Katiyar and party national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar also visited Keshav Kunj.

"Tomorrow (on Tuesday) is the parliamentary party meeting and all our MPs are coming and meeting the BJP president and the Sangh leaders. People have old ties and that is why they are coming here as well. The discussions are about tomorrow's meeting only and no other issue,” Javadekar said. He claimed only Modi and Rajnath were holding discussions on the issue of government formation.

BJP ally in Bihar and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, along with his wife and son Chirag, also met Rajnath at his residence. The NDA ally in Tamil Nadu MDMK chief Vaiko also met Singh. Others who met Singh were party leaders Uma Bharati and Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel.

On his part, the PM-designate also thanked world leaders for their congratulatory messages. Modi thanked leaders of Japan, Russia, Spain, Nepal, Canada, Germany and South Africa as also the UN Secretary General and the Dalai Lama.