The first sitting of the 16th Lok Sabha on Wednesday adjourned within minutes of being convened, after an obituary reference for >Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde who died in a car accident on Tuesday.
The swearing-in of the new members, which was set aside to make the obituary reference, will take place on Thursday and Friday. The House will elect its new Speaker on Friday and BJP leader and eighth term member of Parliament Sumitra Mahajan is the frontrunner for the post.
With Munde’s death casting a shadow on the inaugural day, applause was muted when Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked into the House. Before entering the House, he told reporters that “all efforts will be made in this temple of democracy to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of ordinary citizens.”
Congressman Kamal Nath, sworn in by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan as pro tem Speaker, started the proceedings by calling for a minute’s silence to mark the solemnity of the first sitting of the new House. Lok Sabha Secretary-General P. Sreedharan tabled the list of elected members submitted by the EC.
