New Delhi, Jun 17 (IANS): Linguistic diversity was witnessed in the Lok Sabha as newly-elected MPs took their oaths in English as well as different Indian languages, including Sanskrit.

While most MPs chose Hindi, Harsh Vardhan and Meenakshi Lekhi (both MPs from Delhi), first-timer Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Nishikant Dubey and Pragya Singh Thakur took the oath in Sanskrit.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal took the oath in Punjabi, Arvind Sawant in Marathi, D.V. Sadanand Gowda in Kannada and Bhartruhari Mahtab and Jual Oram take the oath in Odia.

Udhampur MP Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma preferred Dogri while Farooq Abdullah took the oath in Kashmiri language, while former cricketer Gautam Gambhir took the oath in English while Manoj Tiwari and Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma took theirs in Hindi.

MP from Wayanad and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi took oath in English, Parlhad Joshi in Kannada, Kerala MP Ramesh Unninathan in Malayalam, Shardaben Patel took oath in Gujarati while Manipur MP Rajkumar Ranjan Singh took it in Manipuri.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, and Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani took the oath in Hindi.

Congress member Kodikunnil Suresh from Kerala surprised everyone by taking the oath in Hindi, triggering thumping of desks by mainly Hindi-speaking members.

The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha began on Monday with Pro-tem Speaker Virendra Singh administering the oath to members. The oath-taking will continue on Tuesday.