Welcome to our live coverage of Narendra Modi’s oath-taking ceremony as he swears in for his second innings as prime minister. President Ram Nath Kovind will administer the oath in the presence of 6,000 guests, including leaders from the BIMSTEC countries, Kyrgyz Republic, and Mauritius, top politicians and a clutch of Bollywood celebrities.

8.40 pm

As Anurag Thakur takes oath with a few more to go, now the wait is on for portfolios.

8.31 pm

As Ramdas Athawale comes forward to take oath, Rajdeep Sardesai says, ‘From being a [Dalit] Panther, now he’s become more of a cub.’

8.29 pm

G Kishan Reddy ends his oath in a slightly different way from those before him by saying, ‘Bharat mata ki jai.’

8.27 pm

Rahul Shivshankar wonders why PIB hasn’t put out an update yet. A panelist points out that the 8,000 VVIP guests will break into separate chatter if this happens. ‘They want the ceremony to end so that the guests can check portfolios in their cars’

8.22 pm

As General VK Singh takes oath, Rahul Kanwal says: ‘An Army general, an IAS officer, and two IFS officers. The Army is losing, the IAS is losing, the IFS is winning the political game tonight!’

8:14 pm

As RK Singh takes oath, ABP News helpfully tells us that Singh had arrested LK Advani.

8:09 pm

As Prahlad Patel is sworn in, Bhupendra Chaubey can’t help but comment about how firm a handshake the future minister has. ‘He has a handshake, one of the firmest handshakes that you will see,’ he exclaims.

8:03 pm

Rahul Shivshankar has replaced Navika and he comes armed with a printout. It’s a photograph of the old cabinet seating order during swearing-in. He is pointing out the people who have been replaced.

7:54 pm

Navika Kumar announces that the ‘tukde-tukde gang’, or the Break India Gang, has been defeated as Giriraj Singh takes oath. She also provides vitally useful information that images on Narendra Modi’s official Twitter handle have been changed. Panellists on Times Now keep trying to build complex arguments only to be interrupted by Navika Kumar every time a new person takes oath. After half an hour of this, panellists seem to have given up. Now, there is silence.

7.50 pm

India Today continues to flash, ‘Mega Win, Mega Expectations’ as Pralhad Joshi takes his oath.

7.47 pm

Times Now ticker reads ‘Experience, Expertise, Energy’ as Dharmendra Pradhan takes oath.

7.38 pm

Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Thawar Chand Gehlot, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Ramesh Pokhriyal, Arjun Munda, Smriti Irani, Harsh Vardhan and Prakash Javadekar take oath.

7.35 pm

While the panelists talk about Munda’s works in Jharkhand, Bhupendra Chaubey helpfully adds that Munda is also an amazing golf player.

7.33 pm

DD News tweets out visuals of Modi’s mother clapping while watching the swearing-in ceremony.

7.28 pm

As the oath taking continues, the Delhi BJP website has been hacked.

7.22 pm

Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Sadananda Gowda, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ram Vilas Paswan, Narendra Singh Tomar and Ravi Shankar Prasad take oath.

7.16 pm

As the oath-taking goes on, Zee News also gives us details on the number of Twitter and Facebook followers each new minister has.

7.07 pm

Narendra Modi takes oath as Prime Minister.

7.06 pm

Everyone stands straight during the national anthem. Jaggi Vasudev aka Sadhguru might be praying.

7.02 pm

Republic TV is streaming DD while its anchors are talking about how the entire world looks to India on how to conduct elections. Really?

7.01 pm

As Bhupendra Chaubey talks about the possible candidates to be sworn in, one of the panellists, quite proudly, points out, ‘Today being a Thursday, I can’t help but notice that she is sticking to her yellow colour. She is wearing her yellow saree.’

7 pm

‘Kangana Ranaut has sent pulses racing,’ says Sreenivasan Jain on NDTV. ‘Not for the ones on the dais, Sagarika interjects. ‘Modi is the hotline. Kangana is the bling.’

Among prominent media personalities, India TV‘s Rajat Sharma spotted at the swearing-in ceremony.

6.56 pm

ABP on Pratap Sarangi: “Not just an honest personality! Honesty is one thing. Personality is a different thing. He is both!”

India Today‘s Rahul Kanwal on Amit Shah: ‘He doesn’t need to prove to anyone that he can run an election. In fact, some of what he has done has become global case studies now. He says that there are parties across the world that want to know how he runs the show.’

Republic praises its cameras, its jimmy jibs, saying even those attending the ceremony won’t get the visuals that Republic‘s viewers are getting.

6.55 pm

Republic solemnly points out what it calls an important participant in today’s ceremony: the dome of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

6.52 pm

As Mauritius’s PM Pravind Jugnauth walks in, Rahul Kanwal and Rajdeep Sardesai identify and introduce him as Bangladesh’s president, Abdul Hamid. Their panel makes no comment and the discussion moves on.

6.50 pm

Zee News brings its viewers visuals of their own Sudhir Chaudhary arriving as a guest for the ceremony.

6.48 pm

India TV declares that Sushma Swaraj will not be part of the Cabinet. She’s sitting in the front row as an audience member. On ABP News, they’re claiming they were the first to call it.

6.46 pm

On Times Now, Shivshankar continues his analysis on Rahul Gandhi. ‘Just see his single-minded focus towards his chair.’ Now Sushma Swaraj has entered and everyone is wondering where she is going to sit. Audience or Minister enclosure? The suspense is real.

Now RSS is taking bets on where she’s going to sit. ‘OH OH! We got a long shot … we don’t know what happened … maybe that was by design. Totally killed the moment there.’

‘OK. The suspense has ended. She’s sitting in the audience,’ he declares. Now he’s back to analysis Rahul Gandhi

6.45 pm

ABP News spots Sunny Deol: ‘ARRE SUNNY DEOL’. ‘Ji ji unka naam dhyan se bolein. Iss naam ko log maadi galat tareeke se bula chute hain.’

Rahul Shivshankar gives running commentary of Rahul Gandhi’s entrance. ‘You can see him walking fast… His mother is trailing behind… I don’t think he noticed… He’s not meeting anyone’s eyes… probably there is Smriti Irani around.’ Everyone bursts out laughing.

6.44 pm

Republic TV  helpfully tells us that Bhutan is a ‘small mountainous region’ and that it ‘values happiness’.

6.39 pm

As Sunny Deol walks in, Rahul Kanwal cannot help but remark: ‘I hope there are no handpumps at Rashtrapati Bhawan, Rajdeep. Watch out for the handpumps!’

6.38 pm

ABP News is engrossed in trying to guess who the oldest person in the audience is. Parkash Singh Badal and LK Advani are top contenders.

6.37 pm

Bhupendra Chaubey asks CNN-News18‘s ground reporter the golden question: ‘Hum shaam se Arun ji ki dharam patni ki tasveerein dekh rahe hain, unki beti Sonali bhi vahan aayi hui hai, toh ye sirf aupcharikta taur pr aaye hue hain ya iska bhi kuch mayena nikala jaye (We have been seeing Arunji’s wife and daughter, Sonali, present there since evening. So, is this just a formality, or does it have a meaning too)?’

6.35 pm

‘Woh ek nadi ke tarah shanti se behta hai … woh aasman ko choo ke bhi zameen pe rehta hai‘: Zee News anchor recites a few poems in praise of Modi. Madhu Kishwar says Modi isn’t a ‘shaant nadi‘. Meanwhile, the channel plays clips of Arvind Kejriwal entering the venue for the swearing-in.

6.31 pm

Indian Express tells us that the High Tea served during the ceremony will include “lemon tarts, sandwiches, samosas and the appropriately named sweet Rajbhog”.

6.30 pm

Amidst the panel’s guesses for future ministers, Rahul slips up and calls India Today‘s ‘external affairs reporter’ the ‘external affairs minister’. Everybody bursts into laughter.

6.27 pm

Minutes before the ceremony begins, CNN-News18 is still busy praising their coverage of the elections, as they continue to broadcast the one true equation.

On Times Now, intense deliberation is underway on whether Nitin Gadkari sitting beside Amit Shah has a deeper meaning. Meanwhile, people are being shown doing victory signs. In the top left corner, the graphic shows Modi doing the same.