Former Speaker and ruling NDA’s Speaker candidate for the 18th Lok Sabha Om Birla on Tuesday took oath as member of the Lok Sabha, along with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, NCP (Sharad Pawar) leader Supriya Sule, among others.

Mr Birla, re-elected to the House from Kota, Rajasthan for the third consecutive time, was cheered by the Treasury benches as he took the oath. He greeted members on all sides of the House.

As the Lok Sabha was adjourned for Wednesday, Pro-tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab said the oath-taking of most members of the 543-member Lok Sabha was completed in the first two days of the session.

He said some members were yet to take the oath as they were not present. He said several members, despite advice of the Chair, had kept speaking after the text of the oath, invoking names of political leaders or divine figures. “We are still not out of the election fever,” he said.

Other than the oath text, he said, invocations made by the members had been blurred and were not going on record.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held a copy of the red-cover Constitution in his hand while taking his oath in English. Mr Gandhi was cheered by his party colleagues as he proceeded to sign the members’ register after the oath.

Mr Gandhi, along with many members of his party and its INDIA partners, paid tributes to the Constitution but their references were not kept on record, as per the Pro-tem Speaker’s ruling.

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Mrs Dimple Yadav took oath amidst cheers from their party colleagues from Uttar Pradesh. Mrs Sule exchanged greetings and took blessings from senior members of the House.

Pro-tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab told members that oath-taking was a solemn occasion and they should stick to the text of the oath and not invoke names of leaders or other authorities.

Mr Mahtab gave the advice as members, after taking oath, were paying tributes to their political leaders, regions, and invoked gods or goddesses by name. The Chair’s advice, however, had little effect on the members, who kept speaking loudly to invoke names of their leaders and divine figures.

Trinamul Congress members from West Bengal like Saugata Roy, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Kalyan Banerjee and Mahua Moitra were among those cheered by their party colleagues. Among the Congress members from Uttar Pradesh, Mr Kishori Lal Sharma, who won from Amethi, received cheers from the Opposition desks.

The two Manipur MPs from Inner Manipur (Mr Angomcha Bimol Akoijam) and Outer Manipur (Mr Alfred Kanngam S Arthur) were heavily cheered by the INDIA parties and received a standing ovation as they proceeded to take oath. Members from other north eastern states like Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram were also heartily cheered by several parties.