Dr. Singh to begin 2nd innings as PM today

Dr. Manmohan Singh will commence the second innings as Prime Minister on Friday when he is sworn-in for the second consecutive term along with his council of ministers. Dr. Singh is the second Prime Minister after Jawahar Lal Nehru who will be sworn in as PM after completing his first full five-year term.

The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled to be held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan’s Ashoka Hall at 5:30 pm. Five years ago on this day Dr. Singh was sworn in as the 17th Prime Minister.

As is the tradition, President Pratibha Patil will administer the oath of office and secrecy first to the Cabinet ministers in order of precedence and then to the Prime Minister followed by ministers of state.

The first session of the newly constituted Lok Sabha is likely to begin from June two and is expected to continue till June 10. The budget session is reportedly to be held in first week of July.

The new UPA government has more responsibility as after getting clear and strong mandate it has live up to the expectations of the people. Despite enjoying majority in the Parliament with 322 MPs their tenure in 15th Lok Sabha is likely to be even more challenging especially after the kind of mandate they have got.

The suspense continues as who will get what portfolios in the ministry and which ally get how many cabinet berths. This suspense will unveil formally in the evening today with the swearing in ceremony. Three ministries, however, is almost fixed as Pranab Mukherjee is likely to get the Finance ministry, P Chidambaram will continue with Home ministry and the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee can get the much-desired Railway ministry.

Meanwhile, the deadlock between DMK and Congress over the ministerial berth which occurred yesterday deepened today as the UPA pre-poll ally DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and his son and MP from Madurai M Azhagiri left for Chennai this morning.

The DMK with 18 MPs has decided to extend outside support to the UPA as its talk with the Congress on ministerial berths fell utterly.