The second day of the 16th Lok Sabha on Friday saw the first round of oath-taking by new Members of Parliament.

Among those who took oath in the session chaired by the protem Speaker Kamal nath were Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Cabinet colleagues and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Donning a crispy white churidar-kurta and Nehru jacket, Modi took his oath in Hindi, to thumping of desks by his party colleagues.

However, many others new members of the House cutting across party lines preferred to take the oath in their mother tongue such as Kannada, Assamese, Bangla, Maithili, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi and Urdu. Sonia Gandhi, Ashok Gajapati Raju of Telugu Desam and Sudip Bandopadhyaya of Trinamool Congress, however, opted to take the oath in Hindi.

Former Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj took her oath in Sanskrit and was followed by Uma Bharati, Harsh Vardhan and others. The two Muslim MPs from Assam — Badruddin Ajmal and Sirajuddin Ajmal — took their oath in English.

Earlier, senior members Arjun Charan Sethi (Biju Janata Dal), PA Sangma (National Peoples Party) and Biren Singh Engti (Congress) were appointed on the panel of chairpersons by the President to help the protem Speaker in the oath-taking process.

That 315 among the elected MPs were news was quite evident as many of them were being guided by their seniors. The oath-taking ceremony also saw quite few absentees and late comers such as Paapu Yadav, his wife Ranjeeta Ranajn and Moon Moon Sen.

According to sources, Sumitra Mahajan, veteran BJP leader and eight-time MP from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, is tipped as the next speaker of Lok Sabha and the Deputy Speaker’s post may go to AIADMK.

Seating arrangement

Also, the seating arrangement would be finalised once the Speaker takes charge, sources added.

On Wednesday, Advani was seen sitting next to the Prime Minister. Interestingly, on Thursday, when he walked in, senior colleagues Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar insisted that the veteran leader sit in the first row and were seen pointing at the vacant seat next to PM, but Advani seemed to be quite reluctant.

However, later he moved to the front row on the Treasury benches and sat between Lok Janshakti party leader Ramvilas Paswan and his party colleague Sushma Swaraj.

President Pranab Mukherjee will address the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament on June 9, laying down the roadmap of the new government and the discussion on Motion of Thanks will take place on June 10 and 11 before the session is adjourned sine die. The Rajya Sabha will convene from June 9.

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