Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers, including Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, were sworn in as members of the 18th Lok Sabha on June 24, marking the start of its first session.
Returning for his third consecutive term, Mr. Modi, who retained his Varanasi seat since 2014, took his oath in Hindi amid chants of “Jai Shri Ram” from treasury bench members. Opposition members stood holding copies of the Constitution during his oath and remained seated while Amit Shah took his.
Key Ministers and Their Oath-Taking
Among the ministers sworn in, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are members of the Rajya Sabha. Ministers of State George Kurian and Ravneet Singh are not members of either House.
Rajnath Singh, re-elected from Lucknow, Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, and Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur also took their oaths in Hindi. Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, MSME Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, and Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Minister Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh were among the other key ministers sworn in.
Ministers Taking Oaths in Regional Languages
Several ministers chose to take their oaths in regional languages:
- H.D. Kumaraswamy (Steel and Heavy Industries) in Kannada
- Dharmendra Pradhan (Education) in Odia
- Sarbananda Sonowal (Ports and Shipping) in Assamese
- K. Rammohan Naidu (Civil Aviation) and G. Kishan Reddy (Coal and Mines) in Telugu
- Pralhad Joshi (Consumer Affairs) in Kannada
- Shripad Y. Naik (Union Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy) in Sanskrit.
Controversy Over Pro-tem Speaker Appointment
Pro-tem Speaker and Assistant Appointments
Senior BJP members Radha Mohan Singh and Faggan Singh Kulaste, appointed to assist Pro-tem Speaker B. Mahtab in administering the oaths, were sworn in earlier. They will help Mahtab run the House during the oath-taking sessions on June 24 and June 25.
Opposition’s Objection to Appointment
Opposition members K. Suresh (Congress), T.R. Baalu (DMK), and Sudip Bandyopadhyay (TMC), also appointed to the panel of chairpersons, did not attend the swearing-in. The Congress raised objections to Mahtab’s appointment, arguing that the claim of eight-term member K. Suresh, a Dalit leader, was overlooked. In protest, the INDIA bloc announced that its leaders would not join the panel of chairpersons.
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