‘Government for all’: PM Narendra Modi sets tone for second term

Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi set the tone for his second term in office on Saturday, telling newly elected Lok Sabha members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to win the confidence of the minorities and carry everyone along in a speech that emphasised the need for national unity.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies in the NDA elected Modi as their leader and he met President Ram Nath Kovind along with senior leaders of the alliance to stake his claim to forming the next government.

Modi later told reporters on the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan that President Kovind had appointed him prime minister-elect and asked him to form the new government on a date of his choosing.

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BJP chief Amit Shah handed over to the president a letter from NDA allies electing Modi as their leader. He is likely to be sworn in as Prime Minister on May 30.

In his speech in Parliament’s central hall at the NDA’s parliamentary party meeting, attended by all senior leaders of the alliance, Modi added “sabka vishwas” (everyone’s confidence) to his “sabka saath, sabka vikas” (collective effort, inclusive growth) slogan.

“This will be our mantra,” he said in the speech, after bowing before a copy of the Constitution kept in the central hall.

Modi said the alliance had