New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, L K Advani and Sonia Gandhi were among the first to take oath and on Thursday, followed by Cabinet ministers.
The Protem Speaker Kamal Nath administered the oath to Prime Minister Modi, who was attired in spotless white churidar-kurta and matching jacket which caught all the attentions. But what stole the show was Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s oath in Sanskrit, emulated by Uma Bharti and Harshwardhan.
They were followed by Arjun Charan Sethi of Biju Janata Dal, P A Sangma of the National People’s Party and Biren Singh Engti of Congress.
After them, most of the members of the council of ministers of the National Democratic Alliance government took their oath.
Railway minister Sadananda Gowda and minister of chemicals and fertilisers Ananth Kumar, and minister of state for civil aviation G M Siddeshwara, took their oath in Kannada.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal of Shiromani Akali Dal, who is minister for food processing industries, took oath in Punjabi.
Jual Oram, tribal affairs minister, took oath in Odia, while minister of state for tribal affairs Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava took oath in Gujarati.
Sarbananda Sonowal, minister of state for skill development, youth affairs and sports (independent charge), took oath in Assamese.
Other ministers took oath in Hindi while women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi took oath in English.
The 16th Lok Sabha has 315 first-time lawmakers, the highest in 30 years for any house that has 543 elected and two nominated members, according to data compiled by PRS Legislative, a research group that tracks the working of Parliament.
