Oath taking begins amid slogans of Bharat Mata ki Jai and Jai Shri Ram

The 17 th Lok Sabha began on Monday with President Ram Nath Kovind swearing in seven-term MP, Virendra Kumar as the pro-tem speaker of Lok Sabha who in turn started the two day process of overseeing the oath-taking of newly elected Lok Sabha members.

Prime Minister was the first to take the oath among MPs amid laud applause and slogans of Modi, Modi and Bharat Mata ki Jai by the treasury benches while the opposition benches looked amused.

The panel of presiding officers - K Suresh, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh and B Mehtab - took oath as members after the Prime Minister and followed by defence minister Rajnath Singh and home minister Amit Shah in the pecking order.

Smriti Irani emerged as a giant killer by defeating Congress president Rahul Gandhi by over 55K votes in his bastion Amethi drew a huge applause when her name was called out for oath taking. PM Modi and Amit Shah could be seen enthusiastically thumping the table for the longest duration. Irani who took the oath in Hindi greeted the Opposition leaders, including UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi with a namaskar, who also reciprocated in the same manner.

Rahul Gandhi absence was conspicuous during the morning session as RPI leader, Ramdas Athawale sought to know why the president of the largest Opposition party was absent. The Congress president turned up later in the afternoon when the presence of MPs had rather thinned in the lower house and among the top leadership of the treasury benches only Rajnath Singh was present. Sonia Gandhi could be seen enthusiastically thumping the table as Rahul took the oath in English amid a cold response from the BJP benches.

BJP members from West Bengal, especially Asansol MP, Babul Supriyo who defeated Trinamool's Dola Sen in a keenly contested fight and Debashree Chowdhury, who won from the Raiganj were greeted amid loud slogans of Jai Shri Ram in an apparent jibe at Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee who recently was seen taking an offence to chanting of Jai Shri Ram in West Bengal and even chasing away BJP supporters.

Several BJP members such as Meenakshi Lekhi who defeated Congress candidate Ajay Maken in New Delhi parliamentary constituency, took oath in Sanskrit. Gambhir, who defeated AAP's Atishi Singh from East Delhi constituency, came donning a white half sleeve kurta-pajama and took oath in English.

The BJP members kept shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai and Jai Shri Ram intermittently to the annoyance of opposition benches who could be seen shaking their heads in disapproval at times.

RUCKUS OVER PRAGYA’S OATH

Newly elected BJP MP from Bhopal, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, on Monday created a ruckus in Parliament by adding the name of her spiritual guru with her name while taking oath, drawing strong protest from the opposition. Sadhvi Pragya said that it was her full name and she had mentioned that in the form she had filled before oath taking. Pro-tem Speaker Virendra Kumar intervened amid ruckus and asked the Lok Sabha Secretary General to provide him the full name of Sadhvi Pragya.

— Zee Media Newsroom