India is inviting leaders of a number of its neighbouring countries, including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, to the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the weekend, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Modi is all set to take charge as the prime minister for a historic third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning 293 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.
The people cited above said top leaders of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal and Mauritius are likely to be among the foreign leaders to be invited for Modi’s oath-taking ceremony.
The media division of Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said Modi invited him to the swearing-in ceremony. It said Wickremesinghe accepted the invite. It said Wickremesinghe congratulated Modi on the electoral victory in a phone call.
“During the conversation, Prime Minister @narendramodi invited President Wickremesinghe to his swearing-in ceremony, which President @RW_UNP accepted,” it said. Modi also had a phone conversation with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and invited her to attend his swearing-in ceremony which she accepted, diplomatic sources of the news agency claimed.
Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay and Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth are set to be invited to Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. Modi had a separate phone conversation with Prachanda. The formal invitations are set to be sent on Thursday, said one of the people cited above.
The leaders of regional grouping SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries attended Modi’s first swearing-in ceremony when he took the reins as the prime minister after a massive electoral victory for the BJP. Leaders of the BIMSTEC countries attended Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in 2019 when he became prime minister for the second consecutive term.