First session of newly elected Lok Sabha begins 
Our Correspondent / New Delhi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today urged parliamentarians to focus on issues with an impartial spirit and work in the larger interest of the nation. Addressing media outside Parliament here before beginning of first session of 17th Lok Sabha today, the Prime Minister hoped that all political parties will participate in the debate during the Parliament session.
Prime Minister Modi said, the role of an active Opposition is important in a Parliamentary democracy. He said, the Opposition need not bother about their numbers and hoped that it will speak actively and participate in house proceedings.
Prime Minister Modi expressed happiness that the new house has a high number of women MPs. The Prime Minister said, his experience also suggests that when the Parliament functions smoothly, the Government is able to fulfil numerous aspirations of the people of the country.
During the first session of newly elected Lok Sabha which began today, Prime Minister and Leader of the House Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, several other Union Ministers and members took oath. Mr Modi was the first to take oath and after it, he signed the roll of Members and greeted the members.
Cabinet Ministers including, Nitin Gadkari, D V Sadananda Gowda, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Smriti Irani, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Santosh Gangwar, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Dr Harsh Vardhan among others took the oath as Members of the Lok Sabha. Pro-tem speaker Dr. Virendra Kumar administered the oath to the members.
The panel of the presiding officers – Kodikunnil Suresh, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh and Bhartruhari Mahtab took oath. Kodikunnil Suresh of Congress was the second to take oath as Lok Sabha member, after the Prime Minister. The House also observed silence for a short while to mark the solemn occasion of the first sitting of the 17th Lok Sabha.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who has been elected from Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala and other members- Kaushalendra Kumar, Chirag Paswan, Sushil Kumar Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Meenakshi Lekhi, Gitaben Rathva, Mansukhbhai Vasava, Pragya Singh Thakur, Poonam Mahajan, Supriya Sule and Rajashree Mallick also took oath.
The House witnessed linguistic diversity as some members preferred to take oath in their respective mother tongues and few members took oath in Sanskrit language. Later the House was adjourned for the day. The swearing in of members will resume tomorrow.