New Delhi: In the two-day-long swearing ceremony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the first to take oath at the inaugural session of the 17th Lok Sabha session. 

Officials on Monday said that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi might also get a slot to take oath in the session.

The Lok Sabha session will start on June 17 and members will be sworn in. After the swearing in ceremony, members have to take oath before the election of the speaker. 

According to rules of the parliament, the Prime Minister takes oath first followed by the council of ministers. Any member who does not take oath will not be allowed to participate in the activities undertaken.

A Lok Sabha official said, “During the UPA era, the PM belonged to the other House [Rajya Sabha]. So, the leader of the House took oath first. But this time, Modi is the Prime Minister and the leader of the House.” 

Other members of the parliament have been welcomed to take oath in alphabetical order of state names after the Prime Minister is sworn in. The names of the members will also be called in alphabetical order to avoid confusion.

An online format has been provided for the first time by the Secretariat in all the 22 languages that are allowed. An official said, “They can take oath in any language but if it is not Hindi or English, they need to give advance notice to the Lok Sabha secretariat.”

The secretariat has also said that all members of parliament can only read from the official draft of oath and they cannot add or change words and sentences as a precautionary measure. All members take oath either in the name of God or the Constitution.