Modi is sworn in for a rare third term as India’s prime minister

NEW DELHI — Narendra Modi was sworn in Sunday for a rare third consecutive term as India's prime minister, relying on his coalition partners after his party failed to win a parliamentary majority in a surprise outcome.

Modi and his Cabinet ministers took the oath of office, administered by President Droupadi Murmu, at India's presidential palace Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

The 73-year-old popular but polarizing leader is only the second Indian prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to retain power for a third five-year term.

His Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which won by landslides in 2014 and 2019, failed to secure a majority to govern on its own in the latest national election. However, Modi's National Democratic Alliance coalition won enough seats to form a government, with him at the helm.

This is the first time the BJP under Modi has needed support from its regional allies to form a government after a decade of commanding the majority in Parliament.

Final election results released Wednesday showed Modi's BJP won 240 seats, well below the 272 needed for a majority. Together, the parties in the NDA coalition secured 293 seats in the 543-member lower house of Parliament.

Modi's coalition government now largely depends on two key regional allies — the Telugu Desam Party in southern Andhra Pradesh state and Janata Dal (United) in eastern Bihar state — to stay in power.

Meanwhile, Modi's political challenger, the INDIA alliance led by the resurgent Congress party, put up a stronger-than-expected fight, doubling its strength from the last election to win 232 seats.

An avowed Hindu nationalist, the prime minister is considered a champion of the country's Hindu majority, who make up 80% of India's 1.4 billion