PM Modi to attend swearing-in at Shillong, Kohima today

GUWAHATI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a two-day whirlwind tour of the northeast from Tuesday to attend the swearing-in ceremonies of the NDA governments in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya.

Modi has in the past attended swearing-in functions in states like Assam and Tripura, having BJP chief ministers, but this is first time, a PM will be attending government swearing-in ceremonies in Nagaland and Meghalaya.

On the eve of his visit to the northeast, Modi tweeted: "We will continue working with full vigour and fulfil the development needs of the Northeast."

This was in reply to Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma's tweet, "There has been no PM before Adarniya Shri @narendramodi ji who has so passionately worked on bringing the North East into the consciousness of the national mainstream."

While the council of ministers of the NPP-led Meghalaya government headed by Conrad Sangma and the council of ministers of the NDPP-led government of Nagaland with Neiphiu Rio as CM will be sworn-in on Tuesday, the BJP-led Tripura government headed by Manik Saha will be sworn-in on Wednesday.

NDA has retained all the three states for the second successive time in alliance with the same set of partners as in 2018. All the other four states in the region are also currently governed by BJP and its NDA allies.

This will be Modi's second visit to the three states in three weeks. He was in Tripura on February 13 and in Nagaland and Meghalaya on February 24 to campaign for BJP and allies for the polls in the three states.

"The PM will reach Guwahati from Delhi on Tuesday at 10 am. From the airport he will take a chopper to Shillong where he will attend the swearing-in function of the new government (led by NPP), which is at 11 am. From there he will fly to Kohima for the government swearing-in (NDPP-led), which is scheduled at 1.45 pm," said Assam health minister Keshab Mahanta. "He will return to Guwahati at 4 pm and in the evening he will address a cabinet meeting at the state guest house, where he will put up for the night," he said.

On Wednesday morning, PM Narendra Modi will fly to Agartala to attend the swearing-in of the state’s new government (BJP-led) and from there, he will return to New Delhi,” Mahanta added.

In view of the PM Narendra Modi’s arrival in Guwahati and his night halt, the Kamrup metropolitan district area has been declared as ‘no drone fly zone’ on Tuesday and Wednesday. Being the festival of Holi, both days are public holidays.

In Nagaland, the state’s directorate of school education has directed closure of all schools located in capital Kohima on Tuesday where the swearing-in function will be held.

Schools where the students are appearing for the examinations and schools located outside the limits of Kohima will remain open and function as usual.

BJP legislature party of Nagaland on Monday also unanimously decided that its member Y Patton will continue to be the deputy chief minister in the state in which the government will be headed by NDPP's Neiphiu Rio.