Sonia Gandhi, Ashwini Vaishnaw, 12 others sworn in as RS members

Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday administered the oath of 14 political leaders as Rajya Sabha members, including former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The swearing-in ceremony of the newly inducted MPs took place in the new Parliament building and was administered by Rajya Sabha Chairman Dhankhar.

Sonia Gandhi took oath as a member of the Upper House from Rajasthan for the first time, and Vaishnaw was sworn in as a member of the same house from Odisha.

Congress leaders Ajay Maken, who is the treasurer of the All India Congress Committee and a member of the Congress Working Committee and Syed Naseer Hussain from Karnataka, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader RPN Singh from Uttar Pradesh, and BJP member Samik Bhattacharya from West Bengal were among the 14 who took the Rajya Sabha oath.

Sanjay Kumar Jha of the Janata Dal (United) also took oath as a member from Bihar, Subhashish Khuntia and Debashish Samantaray, both from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), took oath as members from Odisha, while Madan Rathore of the BJP took oath as Rajya Sabha member representing Rajasthan.