New Delhi: PM Narendra Modi, several of his cabinet colleagues and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were among the prominent leaders who took oath as members of the 16th Lok Sabha on Thursday. Pro-tem Speaker Kamal Nath chaired the second day of the 16th Lok Sabha as newly-elected members of the House took the oath of office.
Attired in spotless white, the Prime Minister was the first to take oath amid thumping of desks.
He took oath in Hindi in the name of God and was followed by Bharatiya Janata Party veteran LK Advani. While several Union ministers took oath in Hindi in the name of God, Sushma Swaraj, Uma Bharti and Harsh Vardhan read their oath in Sanskrit.
The Congress president made the affirmation in Hindi and so did food minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
Several ministers preferred to take oath in their mother tongue, including DV Sadananda Gowda, Ananth Kumar and GM Siddheshwara, who took oath in Kannada. Sarbananda Sonowal took oath in Assamese and Jual Oram in Odia.
Senior members Arjun Charan Sethi (BJD), PA Sangma (NPP) and Biren Singh Engti (Cong), appointed on the panel of chairpersons by the President to help the pro-tem Speaker in the oath-taking process, took oath after Prime Minister Modi, Advani and Gandhi. Of the newly elected MPs 315 are first time members of Lok Sabha.
The House could sit late on Thursday and continue the exercise of oath taking by members till the afternoon of June 6. Sumitra Mahajan, an eight-time BJP Member of Parliament from Indore, is set to take over as the next speaker of Lok Sabha.
On June 9, President Pranab Mukherjee will address the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, laying down the roadmap of the new government. The discussion on the Motion of Thanks will take place on June 10 and 11 before the session is adjourned sine die.
Rajya Sabha will convene from June 9.
The first sitting of Lok Sabha on Wednesday was sombre as the House condoled the death of Union Cabinet minister Gopinath Munde’s death in a road accident in New Delhi.
Bureau Report
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