BJP leaders Nitin Gadkari, DV Sadananda Gowda, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Giriraj Singh, Babul Supriyo and Shirom Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal will be sworn-in as ministers in the second government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi this evening.
Gadkari held the portfolio of Road Transport and Highways in Modi's first government and retained his Nagpur Lok Sabha seat in the recently concluded elections.
In the last government, Pradhan, a member of the Rajya Sabha, was Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Gowda was Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation while Badal was Minister of Food Processing. Gowda and Badal were elected in the recent elections.
Naqvi, also a Rajya Sabha member, was Minister of Minority Affairs whereas Babul Supriyo was Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. Giriraj Singh was Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the last Modi government.
Before taking the oath of office, the prospective ministers will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg here over tea at 4:30 pm, sources said.
Speaking to here, Gowda said, "I received a call from Amit Shah. He said that I should be at the home of the Prime Minister at 5 pm and the swearing-in ceremony at 7 pm."
"At 5 pm, the prime minister will have tea with his Cabinet other ministerial colleagues. Then we will go to Rashtrapati Bhavan to take oath," he added.
Prime Minister Modi, along with his council of ministers, will take oath as the 15th the Prime Minister of India at 7 pm in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. President Ram Nath Kovind will administer the oath of office and secrecy at the function.
President of Bangladesh Abdul Hamid, President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena, President of Myanmar U Win Myint, Prime Minister of Bhutan Lotay Tshering, Prime Minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli, and Thailand's Special Envoy Grisada Boonrach will be present in the national capital for attending Modi's swearing-in ceremony. The President of Kyrgyzstan, Sooronbay Jeenbekov will also be present at the event.
Several overseas friends of BJP from 15 countries, including the US, Australia, Germany, and the UK, have also been invited.
( With inputs from ANI )