Sonia Gandhi, Ashwini Vaishnaw, among 14 sworn in as RS members

PTI, Apr 4, 2024, 12:59 PM IST

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw were among the 14 who took oath as members of the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar administered the oath to them in the new Parliament house building.

While Sonia Gandhi took oath as a member of the Upper House from Rajasthan, Vaishnaw was sworn in as a member of the same house from Odisha.

Congress leaders Ajay Maken and Syed Naseer Hussain from Karnataka, BJP leader R P N Singh from Uttar Pradesh, and BJP member Samik Bhattacharya from West Bengal were among the 14 who took the Rajya Sabha oath.

Sanjay Kumar Jha of JD(U) also took oath as a member from Bihar, Subhashish Khuntia and Debashish Samantaray, both of BJD took oath as members from Odisha, while Madan Rathore of BJP took oath as RS member representing Rajasthan.

YSRCP leaders Golla Baburao, Meda Raghunadha Reddy, and Yerram Venkata Subba Reddy, and BRS leader Ravi Chandra Vaddiraju from Telangana also took oath as members representing the state of Andhra Pradesh.

They all later took a group photograph with the RS Chairman.

The Rajya Sabha secretariat said that the terms of the members from Odisha and Rajasthan started from Thursday. All others started their term from Wednesday.

Sonia Gandhi has become a Rajya Sabha member for the first time. She took oath in the presence of Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.

Her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also present during her oath-taking.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh and secretary general P C Mody were also present.