Members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 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.
In 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), TR 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 HD 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.
After the oath of the members of the Union Council of Ministers, newly-elected members from various states were sworn in, starting from Bishnu Pada Ray, who represents the Andaman and Nicobar Islands constituency.
