17th Lok Sabha: PM Modi to be the first to take oath at the inaugural session

New Delhi: The inaugural session of the new Lok Sabha will commence on Monday, where during the two-day-long swearing-in ceremony, elected members of the House take oath. As per the rules, the Prime Minister as the leader of the House takes oath first.

As per officials, PM Narendra Modi will be the first to take oath, after which his council of ministers will take their oath.

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United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, however, will also take oath during the two-day-long swearing-in ceremony.

It is to be mentioned that as long as a member does not take the oath, he or she cannot participate in any business of the House.

“During the [Congress-led] UPA era, the PM [Prime Minister Manmohan Singh] belonged to the other [upper] House [Rajya Sabha]. So, the leader of the House took oath first. But this time, Modi is the Prime Minister and the leader of the House,” said a Lok Sabha official.

To avoid any confusion, members of Parliament (MPs) are invited to take the oath in the alphabetical order of the states they come from after the Prime Minister and ministers are sworn in. Within a state, too, the MPs would be called in an alphabetical order of their names. “In this order, Andaman and Nicobar comes first followed by Andhra Pradesh and then Arunachal Pradesh,” told an official.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat has also for the very first time provided online drafts of the oath in all 22 languages in which the members can take the oath. As oath formats are available online, MPs are requested not to add any word or change any sentence. “They can take oath in any language but if it is not Hindi or English, they need to give advance notice to the Lok Sabha secretariat,” said another official.

The MPs take oath either in the name of God or the Constitution.

The 542 members of the Lower House of the Parliament will take their oath during the two-day-long swearing-in ceremony.

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