Narendra Modi took over as the country's Prime Minister for a second term on Thursday after he was sworn in along with Union ministers, including BJP president Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and former foreign secretary S Jaishankar, a surprise pick.
Modi, 68, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Nath Kovind at a glittering ceremony at the forecourt of majestic Rashtraparti Bhavan.
"Honoured to serve India!" tweeted Modi after taking the oath for the second consecutive term.
Apart from Shah, Singh, Gadkari, the other top leaders who were sworn-in as cabinet ministers included D V Sadananda Gowda, Nirmala Sitharaman and Ram Vilas Paswan.
While the inclusion of Shah, seen as BJP's key strategist who helped the party to expand its base after taking over the reins of the party in 2014, was much speculated, Jaishankar, considered close to Modi, was a surprise pick.
Some of the key ministers in the previous Modi government, including Sushma Swaraj, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Maneka Gandhi were not part of the new council of ministers.
Former finance minister Arun Jaitley had written to Modi on Wednesday and said that he didn't want to be a part of the new government due to health reasons.
Top opposition leaders including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, corporate honchos, film stars, chief ministers and a galaxy of leaders from BIMSTEC countries were part of the nearly 8,000 guests at the ceremony.
Others who took oath of office as cabinet ministers are -- Narendra Singh Tomar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Thanwar Chand Gehlot, Ramesh Pokhriyal, Arjun Munda, Smriti Irani, Harsh Vardhan, Prakash Javadekar, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Prahlad Joshi, Mahendra nath pandey, Arvind Sawant, Giriraj Singh and Gajendra Shekhawat.
Those who took oath as minister of state with independent charge are --
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