New Delhi | Congress president Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with attend the swearing-in ceremony of Mr Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, to be held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan premises on Thursday evening. According to AICC officials, the Congress president, along with his mother and Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will attend the swearing-in, scheduled to take place at 1900 hrs on Thursday.
Senior Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad will also attend the swearing in of Mr Modi in his second innings as Prime Minister. It is notable that most Congress CMs, as also the opposition leaders, have decided to stay away from the glitzy swearing-in ceremony to be held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan premises.
In a quick turn of events, maverick West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reversed her earlier announcement and said she will not be attending the swearing-in ceremony to protest the politics over alleged political violence in her state.
Ms Banerjee, who was locked into a bitter one-on-one confrontation with Mr Modi during elections, congratulated the Prime Minister. However in a tweet she wrote ‘It was my plan to accept the ‘Constitutional invitation’ and attend the oath-taking ceremony. However, in the last one hour, I am seeing media reports that the BJP are claiming 54 people have been murdered in political violence in Bengal. This is completely untrue. There have been no political murders in Bengal.’
Reports said Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of CPI-M and Congress-ruled states may also give the swearing in ceremony a miss. A galaxy of international leaders and heads of BIMSTEC nations and who’s who, including film stars like Rajnikanth, have been invited while regional satraps K Chandrasekhar Rao and Jaganmohan Reddy are likely to attend the ceremony.
Bangladesh President Md Abdul Hamid, his Sri Lankan counterpart Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Ministers of Mauritius and Nepal Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and KP Sharma Oli respectively will grace the function.
