New Delhi, July 17 As many as 61 newly elected Rajya Sabha members from 20 states will take oath on July 22. The oath-taking ceremony will be held in the chamber of the House. Members who are unable to take oath on this day will do so during the upcoming Monsoon session. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh and Mallikarjun Kharge, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Shibu Soren are among the 61 Rajya Sabha MPs.
Between March and June, RS elections were held for 61 seats, of which 42 members were elected unopposed in March. Elections were also held on June 19 for some of the seats. Rajya Sabha elections were held for vacant seats in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur among others.
Forty three of the 61 RS members, comprising 72 per cent, have been elected to the Upper House for the first time. Only 12 of the 61 members who completed their tenure have been re-elected. The BJP fielded most of the new faces this time. Jyotiraditya Scindia, who left the Congress to join the BJP, was successful in winning the election on a BJP ticket from Madhya Pradesh.
At present, the BJP has 86 members in the Rajya Sabha. It won 11 of the 61 seats, taking the BJP's tally in the Upper House from 75 to 86. The BJP-led NDA has 113 members, including nominated and independent MPs. A tally of 123 members is required for a majority in the 245-member Rajya Sabha. The BJP is also supported by parties outside the NDA such as the BJD and the YSR Congress.
( With inputs from IANS )