Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said that her party members would not attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s oath-taking ceremony on June 9.
Modi, along with his council of ministers, will be sworn in at 7:15pm, local time, on Sunday at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi, the Indian Express reported.
Mamata, the West Bengal chief minister, said on Saturday that her party had not yet got an invitation for the event.
“Even if we do, we will not attend the ceremony,” she said in Kolkata after meeting newly-elected Trinamool Congress MPs.
“This government is forming undemocratically and unconstitutionally. We cannot give our best wishes to this government,” she added.
The chief minister said that while the Opposition bloc Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) has not staked claim to form the government for now, it did not mean it would not do so in the future.
“Country needs change,” Mamatasaid, according to The Indian Express. “Nobody wants Modi. After this result, he Modi should have stepped down. I do not know how much they can satisfy their alliance partners.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 240 Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's bicameral parliamentseats in the general election, a significant dip from its tally of 303 seats in 2019. A party or alliance requires 272 seats in the 543-member Lower House of Parliament to form a government at the Centre.
With the BJP falling 32 seats short of the majority, it is forming the government with the support of its partners in the National Democratic Alliance. The final tally of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties is 292 seats.
