President Ram Nath Kovind accepted the resignations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Council of Ministers on Friday. With a resounding victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP is set to form the next government at the Centre with Modi at its helm as the Prime Minister. This marks the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha and paves the way for the 17th Lok Sabha.
"The President accepted the resignation and requested the Prime Minister and the Union Council of Ministers to continue in office till the new Government is formed," the Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a statement.
Earlier today, the Union Cabinet passed a resolution to dissolve the 16th Lok Sabha after the BJP-led NDA registered a resounding victory in the recently concluded 2019 Lok Sabha election. They also tendered their collective resignation during this meeting. In the absence of the PM Modi, the Union Council of Ministers passed a resolution praising his leadership and the work done by the government in the last five years.
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Now the 17th Lok Sabha has to be constituted by June 3. The process to form a new House will be initiated when the three election commissioners meet the President in the next few days to hand over the list of newly-elected members. Besides the Prime Minister, the Union Council of Ministers has 60 members, including cabinet ministers, ministers of state with independent charges and ministers of state.
While Prime Minister Modi is expected to assume the office of Prime Minister for the second time, some interesting names are expected to be a part of the Union Council of Ministers this time. Amit Shah is expected to be inducted into the Cabinet on the crucial position of Home Minister. Smriti Irani, who caused the biggest upset in the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Amethi, could be made the next Lok Sabha speaker, reports suggest.
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Several names from the old Cabinet, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Rajnath Singh, Prakash Javadekar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, are expected to feature in the new government. Notably, word on the block indicates that Arun Jaitley might not make a comeback as the Finance Minister when the new Union Council of Ministers takes oath.