LEADERS OF 7 NEIGHBOURING NATIONS TO ATTEND PM'S SWEARING-IN - Key portfolios likely to remain with BJP, allies to get 5-8 Cabinet berths

With less than 24 hours to go for the Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi to take oath on Sunday evening for a third consecutive term, hectic parleys and hard bargaining marked the political activity during the day between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership and its key allies over who gets what in the Union Cabinet.

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The focus in the parleys between BJP top brass and its allies like N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Niths Kumar's JD(U) was on the share of Cabinet berths in the new government. Both the parties have 28 MPs in their kitty and the BJP fell short of the majority mark in the Lok Sabha by 32 MPs.

Senior BJP leaders such as Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh besides party president JP Nadda have been consulting the allies, TDP, JD (U) and Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde, to finalise their share of representation in the government.

The dominant view in the BJP is that crucial portfolios like home, finance, defence and external affairs besides education and culture, two ministries with strong ideological hues, should be with the BJP while its allies can get anywhere between five to eight Cabinet berths.

While leaders like Shah and Singh are seen within the party as a certainty in the new Cabinet, former chief ministers who have won the Lok Sabha polls like Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Basavaraj Bommai, Manohar Lal Khattar and Sarbananda Sonowal are strong contenders for joining the council of ministers.

Sources said that Ram Mohan Naidu of the TDP, Lalan Singh, Sanjay Jha and Ram Nath Thakur of the JD(U), and Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) are among the allies who may be a part of the new government.

Maharashtra, where the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP alliance has fared poorly, and Bihar, where the opposition has shown signs of revival, may be in the focus during the government-formation exercise.