Bonhomie in LS as 510 MPs are sworn in

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP veteran L K Advani and Congress President Sonia Gandhi were among 510 leaders who took oath or made affirmations as members of the Lok Sabha in a marathon sitting on Thursday.

The bonhomie among the newly elected Lok Sabha members was evident as political rivalries were set aside and the leaders greeted each other after taking oath or making the affirmation.

 A fairly large number of members, including External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Uttar Kannada MP Anantkumar Hegde, took oath in Sanskrit.

Most of the Lok Sabha members from Karnataka, including Mallikarjun Kharge, D V Sadananda Gowda and H N Ananth Kumar, took oath in Kannada.

BJP members from Gujarat – Devjibhai Fatepara (Surendranagar) and Mohanbhai Kundariya – turned up in the traditional Kediya costume with tight sleeves and pleated frills at the waist with embroidered borders and shoulders.

They also donned the tight trousers that go with the costume. The duo caught the fancy of the House as they stepped up to take oath.

Earlier, before entering the House, the two leaders also performed a few steps from the Ras Garba dance in the forecourt of Parliament. Another BJP leader, Kirti Azad, turned up donning the traditional ‘paag’ headgear of Bihar.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned on Wednesday as a mark of respect to the late Union minister Gopinath Munde who was killed in a road accident on Tuesday. However, the Lok Sabha made up for lost time by having a marathon sitting without any break and completed the swearing-in of a record 510 members. 

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and his cousin BJP member Varun Gandhi took oath one after the other. While Rahul was elected from Amethi, Varun has entered the Lok Sabha from neighbouring Sultanpur.

While the Pro-tem Speaker was assisted by three other members, Lok Sabha Secretary General P Sreedharan sat through the marathon exercise and also tried to expedite it by calling two members each time.

With only 29 members left to take oath, the election of the Speaker is expected to take place early on Friday.  Earlier, the election was scheduled at 1600 hrs. 

Members from Maharashtra created a piquant situation for the Lok Sabha official as some of them hailed Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, Babasaheb Ambedkar as also Chhatrapati Shivaji.

Former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma, who was in the chair, had to direct the members to stick to the format of the oath as prescribed by the Constitution. He made it clear that any deviation from the prescribed format will not form part of the official record.