PM Modi, senior ministers take oath as members of 18th Lok Sabha

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and members of his Council of Ministers, including Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, took the oath as members of the 18th Lok Sabha as its first session began on Monday.

Modi returned to power for his third consecutive term in office earlier this month. He and his Council of Ministers were sworn in on June 9.

This is also his third term as a member of the Lok Sabha. In the recently held Lok Sabha election, Modi retained his Varanasi seat, which he has been winning since 2014. As the leader of the House, he was the first one to be sworn in.

Modi took the oath in Hindi amid slogans of "Jai Shri Ram" raised by members of the treasury benches.

While he was taking the oath, opposition members rose to their feet, holding copies of the Constitution. When Shah came to take the oath, they again held up the copies of the Constitution but remained seated.

Among the Council of Ministers, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are members of the Rajya Sabha, while ministers of state George Kurian and Ravneet Singh are not members of either House.

Besides Rajnath Singh and Shah, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari also took the oath as members of the 18th Lok Sabha.

While Rajnath Singh was re-elected from the Lucknow seat in Uttar Pradesh, Shah returned from Gandhinagar in Gujarat and Gadkari from Nagpur in Maharashtra. All three took the oath in Hindi.

Before them, senior members Radha Mohan Singh and Faggan Singh Kulaste (both from the BJP), who will assist the pro-tem speaker in administering the oath to the newly elected MPs, were sworn in as members of the new House.

They will help pro-tem speaker B Mahtab run the House when the members take the oath on Monday and Tuesday.

Congress members K Suresh (Congress), T R Baalu (DMK) and Sudip Bandyopadhyay (TMC), who were called to take oath as they were also appointed as panel of chairpersons like Singh and Kulaste, did not turn up.

The Congress has taken objection to Mahtab's appointment, contending that the claim of eight-term member Suresh, a Dalit leader, was overlooked. The INDIA bloc has said opposition leaders Suresh, Baalu and Bandopadhyay would not join the panel of chairpersons as a mark of protest.

Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Jitan Ram Manjhi and Minister for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh also took the oath as members of the new Lok Sabha.

Manjhi and Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh belong to NDA partners Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and JD-U respectively.

Minister for Steel and Heavy Industries H D Kumaraswamy took the oath in Kannada, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Odia, Ports and Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Assamese, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu and Coal and Mines Minister G Kishan Reddy in Telugu and Consumer Affairs Pralhad Joshi in Kannada.

Kumaraswamy is from the JD-S and Naidu is from the Telugu Desam Party.

Union Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy Shripad Y Naik took the oath in Sanskrit.

Earlier in the day, B Mahtab took the oath as a member of the new Lok Sabha as well as that of its pro-tem speaker at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Before the proceedings started, all members observed silence for a few seconds to mark the solemn occasion of the first sitting of the new House.

After the oath of the members of the Union Council of Ministers who won the Lok Sabha election, newly-elected members from various states were sworn in, starting from Bishnu Pada Ray, who represents the Andaman & Nicobar Islands constituency.