The oath taking of members of the newly constituted 16th Lok Sabh began today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to take the oath. He was administered the oath by the Pro-Tem Speaker Kamal Nath.

Then senior BJP MP Lal Krishna Advani took the oath followed by Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi.

Earlier the Pro-Tem Speaker announced a panel of Chairmen in the House to help him in administering the oath to the members. The members of the panel are Arjun Charan Sethi, P A Sangma and Biren Singh Engti.

They are nominated by President Pranab Mukherjee. The Pro-Tem Speaker also administered the oath to the members of the panel. After that members of the council of ministers took the oath. Mrs Sushma Swaraj, Ms Uma Bharati and Harshvardhan took the oath in Sanskrit while Sadanand Gowda and Anant Kumar in Kannada.

Some senior members including former prime minister and Janta Dal (secular) leader H D Devegauda took the oath prior to the members called for taking oath as per the alphabetical order of their states. The oath taking of other members is underway