Swearing-in of 539 MPs starts

Our Correspondent, New Delhi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took oath as a member of the Lok Sabha yesterday, becoming the first of die 539 MPs to be sworn in as a member of the 16th lower House of parliament constituted after recent parliamentary elections in which his Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power with a landslide victory.

Modi, 64, was sworn in as the lawmaker as he made his debut in parliament, followed by BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani and opposition Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the swearing-in ceremony of the newly-elected MPs. They were followed by PunroA Sangma (National People's Party), Arjun Charan Sethi (Biju Janata Dal), and Biren Singh Engti (Congress).

Home Minister Rajnath Singh was first of the Cabinet Ministers to take oath, followed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who spoke in Sanskrit to be sworn in. Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda took the oath in Kannada, his mother tongue.

Attired in a white kurta and white jacket, Modi greeted Sonia Gandhi with folded hands when she reached his seat to greet him while going around the well after taking oath. He shook hands with the pro tem speaker Kamal Nath of Congress party and was greeted with a loud thumping of desks by the members.

The total strength of the Lok Sabha is 543 but its effective strength stands at 539 now. Modi had resigned from Vadodara (in Gujarat state), one of the two parliamentary constituencies seats from where he had contested. Sarnajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav had quit his Mainpuri seat in Uttar Pradesh state while retaining Azamgarh.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrasekhar Rao gave up his Medak seat in newly-formed Telangana state after becoming the chief minister of India's 29th state.

The Beed Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra state fell vacant after India's Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde died in a road accident in Delhi on Tuesday.

A woman speaker; second time in history

Our Correspondent, New Delhi

India will have a woman Speaker of Lok Sabha, for the second time in its parliamentary history.

Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sumitra Mahajan, 72, will be the Speaker of the new Lok Sabha, as 19 senior leaders drawn

from all parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, moved motions today proposing her name for the high office.

The first woman Speaker of the country was Meira Kumar who was defeated in recent parliamentary elections.

Mahajan was the only name that was proposed as the deadline for filing nomination for the post came to a close yesterday. The formal election for the Speaker's post will take place today.

She is an eight-term Lok Sabha member from central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.