New Delhi, June 24 (FN Agency) The first session of 18th Lok Sabha began on Monday with the oath-taking ceremony of newly-elected Members of Parliament, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Following the national anthem and obituary reference to members who passed away since the last concluded session, Protem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab administered the oath of office starting with PM Modi. The opposition INDIA bloc members waved copies of the Constitution as Modi took oath as a member of Lok Sabha as PM for a third consecutive time. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other opposition MPs showed the copies of the Constitution to PM Modi as he was about to take oath. Union Home Minister Amit Shah was also greeted in a similar manner, a few moments later.
Gandhi, Trinamool leader Kalyan Banerjee, and Samajwadi Party leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Awadhesh Prasad were all seated in the first row of the opposition benches. Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Giriraj Singh, Sarbananda Sonowal, Piyush Goyal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Bhupender Yadav, Kiren Rijiju, Mansukh Mandaviya, Pralhad Joshi, Dr. Jitendra Singh, G Kishan Reddy among other took oath as the member of Lok Sabha. When Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stood up to take his oath, the opposition benches shouted slogans amid the ongoing paper-leak scam and ongoing protests over unclear future of NEET (UG-2024), NEET (PG-2024), UGC-NET 2024 exam aspirants. Union Minister from the NDA partner, H D Kumaraswamy, Chirag Paswan, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, Anupriya Patel also took oath as members of Lok Sabha. About 280 newly-elected MPs will take oath today, while the remaining 260 parliamentarians, including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, will take oath Tuesday.
BJP MPs Radha Mohan Singh and Faggan Singh Kulaste took the oath as members of the chairperson panel. However, Congress MP K Suresh, DMK MP TR Balu, and Sudip Bandyopadhyay of TMC skipped oath-taking proceedings as panel members. Earlier, President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath to BJP lawmaker Bhartruhari Mahtab as the pro-tem Speaker of the Lok Sabha. She also appointed Suresh Kodikunnil, Thalikkottai Rajuthevar Baalu, Radha Mohan Singh, Faggan Singh Kulaste, and Sudip Bandyopadhyay to assist the pro-tem Speaker in administering the oath to the newly elected members. On June 26, the Lok Sabha Speaker will also be elected, followed by President Murmu’s address to a joint sitting of both Houses the next day, June 27. The session will conclude on July 3. Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said he was positively looking forward to coordination to run Parliament, as the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha got underway.
In a post on X, Rijiju said he shall always be available to assist the members of parliament as the minister of parliamentary affairs. “The First Session of the 18th Lok Sabha begins today, the 24th June 2024. I welcome all the newly elected Hon’ble members. I shall be always available to assist the members as minister of parliamentary affairs. I’m positively looking forward to co-ordination to run the house,” Rijiju said. Himachal MPs Anurag Thakur and Kangana Ranaut also took oath. Mandi MP Ranaut after taking her oath, told the media: “Like the PM said, the entire nation hopes that the opposition will be more responsible. Let’s see what they will bring to the table.”