Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif today congratulated his regional rival Narendra Modi on being sworn in as Prime Minister of India for the third consecutive term, reported Reuters. This is Islamabad's first comment on the election results in neighboring India, the agency notes.
"Congratulations to Narendra Modi on being sworn in as the Prime Minister of India," Sharif wrote on the "X" platform, a day after Modi was sworn in and nearly a week after the official results of the country's parliamentary elections were announced. .
Modi was sworn in yesterday for a record third consecutive term after an unexpected outpouring of support for his Bharatiya Janata Party, as it lost its absolute majority in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of parliament) and will now depend on the support of regional parties in its first coalition government since coming to power in 2014.
Nuclear-armed regional rivals India and Pakistan have fought two wars and engaged in numerous armed clashes with each other, mainly over control of the Himalayan region of Kashmir. Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since India ended the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 and split it into two federally administered territories, Reuters notes.
Yesterday, Modi took the oath of office before President Draupadi Murmu at a solemn ceremony at Delhi's presidential palace, attended by thousands of dignitaries, including the leaders of seven countries in the region, industrialists and Bollywood stars. However, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was not among those invited, the agency notes.