Cabinet recommends dissolution of 16th LS

New Delhi, May 24: The Union Cabinet Friday recommended the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha as the Union Council of Ministers tendered their collective resignation, government sources said.

The Cabinet meeting came a day after the counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections, in which the NDA retained power with a massive mandate.

After the Cabinet's recommendation, President Ram Nath Kovind is now expected to dissolve the present Lok Sabha, the term of which is ending on June 3. He would also ask the present government to continue till the new government is formed in the coming days.

Later, at a meeting of the Union Council of Ministers, all members of the Council tendered their collective resignation. The President has invited the members of the Union Council of Ministers for a dinner at Rashtrapati Bhawan where Prime Minister Narendra Modi would submit the recommendation to dissolve the present Lok Sabha and the resignations.

The 17th Lok Sabha has to be constituted before June 3. The process to form a new House will be initiated when the three election commissioners meet the President in the next few days to hand over the list of newly-elected members.

Besides the Prime Minister, the Union Council of Ministers has 60 members, including cabinet ministers, ministers of state with independent charges and ministers of state.

In the absence of the PM, the Union Council of Ministers passed a resolution praising the leadership of Mr Modi and the work done by the government in the last five years. The present Modi government had taken oath on May 26, 2014.

– PTI