As many as 27 of the 57 members elected to the Rajya Sabha during the recent biennial polls on Friday took oath owing allegiance to the Constitution as required to commence their functioning as members of the Council of States.
They took oath in the presence of Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu in the chamber of Rajya Sabha.
Of the 27 who took oath today as Rajya Sabha MP, 18 are members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
These 27 members from 10 States took oath in different languages-- Hindi (12 Members), English (4), two each in Sanskrit, Kannada, Marathi and Oriya and one each in Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu. Recently, four of the 57 newly elected Members have taken oath as MP.
The newly elected or re-elected Members who took oath/affirmation today include Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. While Goyal has been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, Sitharaman has been re-elected from Karnataka.
Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Vivek K Tankha and Mukul Wasnik also took oath as members of the Upper House. Ramesh has been elected from Karnataka, Wasnik from Rajasthan and Tankha from Madhya Pradesh.
BJP leaders Surendra Nagar, K Laxman, Laxmikant Vajpayee and Kalpana Saini, Baburam Nishad elected from Uttar Pradesh, Dhananjay Madhu from Maharashtra and Ghanshyam Tiwari from Rajasthan took oath today.
Rashtriya Lok Dal (RJD) leader Jayant Chaudhary, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Sulata Deo and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader R Dharmar were also administered oath as Rajya Sabha MPs.
A total of 14 of the 57 members were re-elected to the House.
The remaining MPs who didn't take oath today are likely to do so on the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament.
BJP national president JP Nadda and Minister of State for Parliamentary affairs V Muraleedharan remained present during the oath-taking ceremony.
Notably, close to 72 members of the Rajya Sabha will retire by the month of July from the Upper House.
( With inputs from ANI )
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