18 MPs from Kerala take oath in 1st LS session, most in Malayalam

New Delhi: The majority of the 18 Kerala MPs who were sworn in during the swearing-in event did it in Malayalam, making the first season of the 18th Lok Sabha stand out.

It was in Malayalam that newly elected BJP MP Suresh Gopi took his oath of office, whereas UDF MPs N K Premachandran, K C Venugopal, Adoor Prakash, and another debutant, MP Shafi Parambil, chose English.

Hibi Eden, the MP for Ernakulam, recalled his extended stay in New Delhi during his NSUI days when he took his oath in Hindi. 18 MPs from Kerala took the oath of office on Monday.

UDF MPs Anto Antony, Kodikunnil Suresh, Dean Kuriakose, Benny Behanan, VK Sreekandan, E T Muhammed Basheer, M P Abdussamad Samadani, M K Raghavan, K Sudhakaran, and Rajmohan Unnithan are among those who took an oath in Malayalam, the New Indian Express reported.

K Radhakrishnan, the lone CPM MP from Alathur, also took the oath in Malayalam.

Shashi Tharoor, the MP for Thiruvananthapuram, and Rahul Gandhi, the former MP for Wayanad, did not take oath on Monday. Tharoor is currently abroad. He told TNIE that he would take the oath on Wednesday.

With Rahul Gandhi's resignation from the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat and his decision to retain his Rae Bareli seat, a by-election will be held soon.

A senior Congress MP told TNIE that during the 2021 Lok Sabha election, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi had discouraged everyone from taking the oath in Hindi during the attempt to impose Hindi nationwide by the then-BJP government.

Hibi, who took oath in Hindi, admitted to TNIE that he had primarily used Hindi when he was the president of the NSUI. “I was based in New Delhi for close to 3.5 years before becoming a legislator from Ernakulam assembly constituency. My association as NSUI president helped me to dabble in Hindi. So when I got an opportunity to speak in Hindi, I decided to grab at it”, said Hibi.