Sonia Gandhi, along with 13 others, sworn in as Rajya Sabha MPs

New Delhi: A total of 14 took oath as members of the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. They include former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Railway Minister Ashwini Kumar Vaishnaw, PTI reported.

In the new Parliament House building, Vice-President of India and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar administered the oath to them.

Sonia Gandhi took the oath and became a member, representing Rajasthan, when Vaishnaw was sworn in representing Odisha.

Others who took oath on Thursday include Congress leaders Ajay Maken and Syed Naseer Hussain from Karnataka, BJP leader RPN Singh from Uttar Pradesh, and BJP member Samik Bhattacharya from West Bengal.

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

Representing Andhra Pradesh YSRCP leaders Golla Baburao, Meda Raghunadha Reddy, and Yerram Venkata Subba Reddy, and BRS leader Ravi Chandra Vaddiraju from Telangana took oath as RS MPs.

Later, all the new MPs took a group photograph with the Rajya Sabha Chairman.

The terms of the members from Rajasthan and Odisha started on Thursday, while the rest started on Wednesday, the Rajya Sabha secretariat informed us.

A first-time Rajya Sabha member, Sonia Gandhi, took oath in the presence of the Leader of the House, Piyush Goyal and Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge. Sonia’s daughter, Priyanka Vadra, was also present at the oath-taking ceremony.

The oath-taking ceremony was attended by the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh and secretary general PC Mody.