President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday invited Manmohan Singh to be the next Prime Minister of India and asked him to advise her on the council of ministers.Claiming the support of 322 MPs, Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi had staked claim to form the next Government at a meeting with the President.
The new ministry will be sworn-in on Friday.
Meanwhile, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partners met on Wednesday to discuss the knotty issue of distribution of ministerial berths and also re-elected Congress President Sonia Gandhi as Chairperson of the grouping.
The meeting at Congress President Sonia Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence was attended by Manmohan Singh and the galaxy of UPA leaders, who have bagged 263 seats in the parliamentary elections.
Sonia Gandhi's name as Chairperson of the UPA was proposed by DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and seconded by Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee.
Among those who attended the UPA meeting from the Congress were Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram, AK Antony and General Secretary Rahul Gandhi.
The other members of the Congress-led grouping were there in full strength too – Karunanidhi with grandnephew Dayanidhi Maran, Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel and National Conference's Farooq Abdullah.
Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, who switched over to UPA after the elections, also attended.
"It was decided unanimously that Soniaji and Manmohanji along with (letters of) support will meet the honourable president," Mamata said.
With 19 seats, the Trinamool Congress is the UPA's largest ally.
While the wish list of partners like the Trinamool Congress and DMK was still uncertain, National Conference patron Abdullah said his party was not interested in ministerial berths.
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