Forty-five of the 61 newly elected members took oath on Wednesday, and for the first time, the ceremony was held inside Rajya Sabha hall when the Parliament is not in session. Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu urged the new members “not to fall prey to the temptation of disrupting the proceedings of the House for short-term gains”.
Members as numbers: On Rajya Sabha elections
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) now stands at 85 members, more than double of the Congress, which is down to 40. With the numbers on its side, the Rajya Sabha is no longer a roadblock to any legislation proposed by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
From Cong. to BJP
A little before the oath-taking ceremony commenced, BJP MP Jyotiraditya Scindia walked across the aisle to greet members from his former party, including Congress MP Digvijaya Singh.
Mr. Scindia won’t be the only former Congress MP to be sitting in treasury benches after joining the BJP. He will be accompanied by the former chief whip of the Congress in Rajya Sabha, Bhubaneshwar Kalita, who recently joined the BJP.
36 first-timers
Out of the 45 who took oath, 36 members were first-timers to the upper house, and 12 members have been re-elected, including Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, and Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and Janata Dal-United leader Harivansh Narayan Singh.
The members took oath in ten languages — Telugu, Bodo, Kannada, Manipuri, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Bengali, Hindi and English.
‘Noble responsibility’
Mr. Naidu urged the newly elected not to fall prey to the temptation of disrupting the proceedings of the House for short-term gains and instead, to be conscious of their noble responsibility toward enhancing the standing of the apex legislature in public esteem. “Ensuring rule of law is the spirit of our law of the land [the Constitution]. It shall begin with your compliance with the rules and procedures of this House,” he said.
Members from the Trinamool Congress, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, and Janata Dal (Secular) member and former PM Deve Gowda did not come down to Delhi for the ceremony owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. They will take oath whenever the monsoon session of Parliament is convened.
