New Delhi, June 5
United colours of India were on display in the Lok Sabha today as 510 newly elected members took oath of office led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP veteran LK Advani and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

As top three leaders showed the way, welcoming each other with folded hands after taking oaths in Hindi, a sense of warmth filled the House which later saw arch-rivals bury differences to hail one another. The Gandhis topped the category with estranged sister-in-laws Sonia and BJP’s Maneka Gandhi greeting each other followed by cousins Rahul and Varun.

Young opponents from Haryana Deepender Hooda (Congress) and INLD’s Dushyant Chautala also broke political barriers to shake hands. Dushyant, who defeated HJC’s Kuldeep Bishnoi in Hisar, is among the 315 first-time MPs in the 16th Lok Sabha. The effective strength of the current House is 539 (after three vacancies of Medak, Vadodra and Mainpuri and one seat falling vacant after Gopinath Munde’s demise).

When Congress stalwart Captain Amarinder Singh took oath returning to the Lok Sabha after three decades, all MPs across political spectrum welcomed him. He and BJP’s Vinod Khanna were the only Punjab MPs among 13 who took oaths in English; others preferred Punjabi.

Pro Tem speaker Kamal Nath called MPs in the following order — Modi, Advani, Sonia followed by presiding officers for today’s ceremony Arjan Sethi, PA Sangma and Biren Singh Engti, Cabinet ministers led by Rajnath Singh, Ministers of State and independent charge and state-wise MPs in alphabetical order. The queue was later broken for former PM HD Deve Gowda, former Deputy Speakers Karia Munda (BJP) and M Thambidurani (AIADMK) and TMC’s leader in the LS Sudeep Bandopadhyay.

Though shorn of its legacy of stalwarts such as Sharad Yadav, Basudeb Acharia and Gurudas Dasgupta, the 16th LS looked happy with its new bounty of star dust. Celebrities spiced up the House led by BJP’s Shatrugha Sinha, the first in star brigade to take oath, followed by Chandigarh’s Kirron Kher, Bjojpuri singer Manoj Tewari (Delhi); actors Chirag Paswan (Bihar), Paresh Rawal (Gujarat), Hema Malini (Mathura) and “Mrs Dev Verma” aka Moon Moon Sen; and singer Babul Supriyo (West Bengal).