First session of 17th Lok Sabha starts today

The first session of 17th Lok Sabha began today (June 17). Before the House met, Virendra Kumar was sworn in as Pro-tem Speaker by President Ramnath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The new session began with playing of the National Anthem.

The first two days of the session will be used for administering oath of office to all Lok Sabha MPs by Pro-tem Speaker Virender Kumar. The budget will be presented on July 5.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is also the leader of the House, taking oath as Member. After Prime Minister, the panel of presiding officers - K Suresh, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh and B Mehtab took oath as Members. Union Minister Smriti Irani, who defeated Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, received the longest applause when she took oath as member.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and Chemical and Fertilisers Minister D V Sadanand Gowda also took oath.

Union Ministers Harsh Vardhan, Sripad Naik and Ashwini Chaubey were amongst those who took oath in Sanskrit. Congress MP from Kerala, Kodikunnil Suresh took oath in Hindi.

After Union Ministers take oath, newly-elected MPs are called to take oath in an alphabetical order of the states they were elected from. Within a state, the MPs are called in an alphabetical order of their names.