In a rare display of bonhomie, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his arch critic Rahul Gandhi shook hands in the newly elected Lok Sabha today following the Speaker’s election, in which Om Birla, the nominee for the ruling BJP-led NDA, won by voice vote.
Modi, in white kurta-pyjama topped by a grey vest, and Rahul, who discarded his usual white T-shirt and was in white kurta-payjama, smiled as they shook hands.
The two leaders came together along with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kirren Rijiju to welcome newly elected Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and escort him to the chair inside the Lok Sabha chamber.
Pro-Tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab declared Birla as elected for the post of Speaker after the opposition, which had put forward Congress MP K Suresh as its candidate, chose not to push for a vote on the motion.
Photos of Modi and Rahul shaking hands have gone viral after a bitterly fought campaign in parliamentary elections when they had launched a virtually no-holds barred attacks on each other.
Rahul Gandhi is set to occupy the post of the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, following the footsteps of his mother Sonia Gandhi, who served from 1999 to 2004, and his father, Rajiv Gandhi, who was the leader of the opposition from 1989 to 1990.
