NEW DELHI: Forty one of the 58 newly-elected Rajya Sabha MPs took oath on Tuesday in as many as nine languages. These members were elected from 15 states in the elections last month.
Members walked up to a specially put up microphone right below the presiding officer's chair to take oath in the Upper House and then met Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu who welcomed them with a handshake. The newly sworn in MPs signed the members' register and greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, other senior ministers and opposition leaders present in the House.
While almost all the members belonging to the ruling NDA took the oath by swearing in the name of god, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar took the oath affirming his allegiance to the Constitution of India. TMC's Mohammad Nadimul Haque, swore in the name of 'Allah'.
Looking forward for better debates and discussions in the House, Naidu expressed hope that the members would raise people-oriented issues and enhance the dignity and prestige of the House.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was appointed as the Leader of the Rajya Sabha once again following his re-election to the House. However, he did not take the oath on Tuesday. His term had ended on Monday. Along with Jaitley, members elected from Rajasthan, Telangana and Odisha also did not take oath on Tuesday.
Among the Union Ministers who took oath included Mansukh L Mandaviya from Gujarat, Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda (elected from Himachal Pradesh), Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan (elected from Madhya Pradesh), Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (elected from Bihar) and HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar (elected from Maharashtra).
Honored to take oath as a #RajyaSabha member today. I thank Hon. PM @narendramodi Ji & @BJP4India President Shri @AmitShah Ji for their faith in me & pledge to carry out my duties with complete devotion & servitude towards the nation. pic.twitter.com/PPaooHfiLl
— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) April 3, 2018
Lawyer-turned-politician Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress, who got elected to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal with the support of TMC also took oath on Tuesday.
TDP's CM Ramesh and K Ravindra Kumar from Andhra Pradesh, JD(U)'s Mahendra Prasad and Bashistha Narain Singh, RJD's Ashfaque Karim and Manoj Kumar Jha (all from Bihar), BJP's Purshottam Rupala and Naranbhai Rathwa and Amee Yajnik of Congress (from Gujarat) also took oath.
BJP's Devender Paul Vats, elected from Haryana, took oath in Hindi. Former telecom enterpreneur Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who was elected from Karanataka on a BJP ticket, took oath in Kannada.
From Madhya Pradesh, Rajmani Patel of Congress and BJP's Ajay Pratap Singh and Kailash Soni took oath. Shiv Sena's Anil Desai, re-elected to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, took oath in Marathi, so did NCP's Vandana Chavan. BJP's Narayan Tatu Rane and V Muraleedharan and Congress' Keshav Chintaman Ketkar also took oath.
From Uttar Pradesh, BJP's Anil Agarwal, Ashok Bajpai, Anil Kumar Jain, Kanta Kardam, GVL Narasimharao, Sakaldeep, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar and Harnath Singh Yadav, and from Uttrakhand, BJP's Anil Baluni took oath. TMC's Subhasish Chakraborty, Abir Ranjan Biswas and Santanu Sen took oath.
However, three members of Congress elected from the state, including L Hanumanthaiah, did not take oath today. Jaya Bachchan, who was re-elected on SP ticket, also did not take oath on Tuesday.
(With PTI inputs)
