Narendra Modi, 57 others take oath of office and secrecy: Full list of members in NDA-II Council of Ministers

A new Council of Ministers led by Narendra Modi took oath of office and secrecy on Thursday at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Council of Ministers of the NDA-II governemnt has 57 members, which includes 25 Cabinet-rank ministers, nine Ministers of State (Independent Charge) and 24 Ministers of State.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the oath-taking ceremony at Rahstrapati Bahvan. Twitter@BJP4India

Narendra Modi took over as the country's prime minister for a second term on Thursday after he was sworn in along with Union ministers, including BJP president Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and former foreign secretary S Jaishankar, a surprise pick.

Modi, 68, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Nath Kovind at a glittering ceremony at the forecourt of majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan.

"Honoured to serve India!" tweeted Modi after taking the oath for the second consecutive term.

BJP has 54 ministers in the council, while the other NDA allies SAD, LJP, Shiv Sena and the RPI(A) have one Cabinet berth each. The state-wise allotment in the Cabinet shows that there are nine ministers from Uttar Pradesh, eight from Maharashtra, five from Bihar, four from Karnataka and three from Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan each.

There are six women in Modi's new Cabinet, including former HRD and textile minsiter Smriti Irani who was sworn-in as a Cabinet minister along with Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Nirmala Sitharaman.

Irani also won her first Lok Sabha election by defeating Congress president Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.

Apart from Shah, Singh, Gadkari, the other top leaders who were sworn-in as Cabinet ministers included DV Sadananda Gowda, Ram Vilas Paswan and Dharmendra Pradhan.

While the inclusion of Shah, seen as BJP's key strategist who helped the party to expand its base after taking over the reins of the party in 2014, was much speculated, Jaishankar, considered close to Modi, was a surprise pick.

Some of the key ministers in the previous Modi government, including Sushma Swaraj, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Maneka Gandhi were not part of the new council of ministers. Senior BJP leader and eight-time MP Maneka is likely to be the pro-tem Speaker in the 17th Lok Sabha, sources told PTI. Some of the other former ministers who missed out are JP Nadda, Radha Mohan Singh and Suresh Prabhu.

Former finance minister Arun Jaitley had written to Modi on Wednesday and said that he didn't want to be a part of the new government due to health reasons.

Top Opposition leaders including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, corporate honchos, film stars, chief ministers and a galaxy of leaders from BIMSTEC countries were part of the nearly 8,000 guests at the ceremony.

There are 24 Cabinet ministers and as many MoS' while nine others were given MoS with Independent charge rank.

Here's the list of all the ministers who took oath on Thursday:

Modi can have as many as 80 ministers in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

As per the Constitution, the total number of Union ministers, including the prime minister shall not exceed 15 percent of the number of members in the Lok Sabha.

This is the second time Modi took the oath at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Modi was sworn in by former president Pranab Mukherjee in 2014 in the presence of over 3,500 guests including the heads of SAARC countries.

Earlier, Chandra Shekhar in 1990 and Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999 were sworn in at the sprawling forecourt.

Leaders of BIMSTEC countries including President of Bangladesh Abdul Hamid, Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena, Nepal prime minister KP Sharma Oli, President of Myanmar U Win Myint and Bhutanese prime minister Lotay Tshering also attended the gala event.

From Thailand, its Special Envoy Grisada Boonrach represented the country. Besides India, BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) comprises Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan as members.

Kyrgyz president and current chair of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation chief Sooronbay Jeenbekov, and Mauritius prime minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth also attended the event.

With inputs from PTI