New Delhi: The winter session of parliament began on Friday after obituary references the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day till Monday.
Soon after the house met, newly elected member Sunil Jakhar took the oath of office. Jakhar is the son of former Speaker Balram Jakhar. He won the by-poll from the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency after it fell vacant following the death of filmstar Vinod Khanna.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi then introduced his new Council of Ministers, including Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and others.
The Prime Minister has reshuffled his Council of Ministers in September, inducting nine new faces.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan condoled the death of three sitting and some other former members, including former union minister and Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi.
The members condoled the deaths of sitting MPs Sultan Ahmed (Trinamool Congress), M. Taslimuddin (Rashtriya Janata Dal) and Mahant Chandnath (Bharatiya Janata Party).
Ahmed was a member from Uluberia in West Bengal while Taslimuddin was a former union minister and a member of the lower house from Arariya in Bihar. Mahant Chandnath was a member of the house from Alwar in Rajasthan.
Mahajan introduced Snehlata Sivastava, the first woman Secretary General of the Lok Sabha. She also hailed Anoop Mishra, Srivastava's predecessor, for his service.
The winter session is scheduled to conclude on January 5, 2018.
Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha was on Friday adjourned till 2.30 p.m. soon after it met for Question Hour after a short adjournment, amidst heated exchanges between the opposition and government over the allegations levelled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi against his predecessor Manmohan Singh.
The Upper House of Parliament was earlier adjourned briefly after the opposition parties led by Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad protested against suspension of JD-U leader Sharad Yadav.
However, soon after the House met again for the Question Hour, Azad and other opposition leaders protested against Prime Minister Modi's attacks on his predecessor over an alleged meeting with senior Pakistani officials.
Modi had claimed that during a meeting at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's house, guests including Manmohan Singh, discussed the Gujarat polls with Pakistan's High Commissioner to India and former Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri.