Mumbai: Thirty-four of the 48 members of Parliament (MPs) took their oaths in Marathi on Monday. Evidently, the '#Marathishapath' campaign launched on social media before the oath-taking ceremony in the Lok Sabha seems to have made an impact. Three MPs took their oaths in Sanskrit. Importantly, Imtiaz Jaleel from Aurangabad and Navneet Kaur Rana from Amravati, the two non-Maharashtrian MPs, surprised everyone by taking the oath in chaste Marathi. Their gesture served as fodder for opponents to take potshots at Sharad Pawar, the Nationalist Congress Party chief and Baramati MP Supriya Sule's father and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray.
A person with the twitter handle, OfficeOfPunekar said, "#Marathiche bhaavnik raajkaaran karnaarya sarwana khaasdaar @imtiaz_jaleel yaani aaj ghaytleli #Marathishapath sansanit chapraak aahe (The oath by Imtiaz Jaleel in Marathi is a slap on the face of those who always play on Marathi sentiments).
Both Jaleel and Kaur are first-time MPs. Three-time MP Sule took the oath in Hindi while Sujay Vikhe Patil Ahmednagar (South), first-time MP, and Udayanraje Bhosale from Satara took their oaths in English. In fact, a cartoon by Twitter user Ashish Padhyar depicted Pawar gagging Raj, who in turn, is seen gagging his party worker.
Padhyar's accompanying tweet said, "Supriya Suleni ghaytli Hindit shapath tari sarva Manasainkik gupp! (Even though Supriya Sule took her oath in Hindi, MNS is quiet)."
All 18 MPs of the Shiv Sena and 11 from the Bharatiya Janata Party took their oaths in Marathi. Interestingly, Amol Kolhe, Sunil Tatkare, Navneet Kaur Rana, Balu Dhanorkar of the Congress and Imtiaz Jaleel of All India Majlis-E-Ittihadul-Muslimeen took their oaths in Marathi, while Unmesh Patil, Sunil Mendhe and Girish Bapat of the BJP took their oaths in Sanskrit.