Jaya Bachchan, 13 others take Rajya Sabha oath

New Delhi: Actor-turned-parliamentarian Jaya Bachchan and Bharatiya Janata Party ‘s (BJP) Bhupendra Yadav were among a dozen newly elected or re-elected members of the Rajya Sabha who took the oath of office on Wednesday.

While 41 out of the 58 members elected/re-elected to the Upper House in elections last month had taken oath yesterday, 12 did so on Wednesday. However, finance minister Arun Jaitley did not take oath even on Wednesday. His term as an MP from Gujarat ended on 2 April and he has been re-elected to the Upper House from Uttar Pradesh this time. Jaitley was not present in the House.

Prominent among those who took oath on Wednesday included Jaya Bachchan, who was re-elected on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket from Uttar Pradesh. Her sister Rita Verma was seated in the visitors’ gallery during the oath. All the three Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MPs from Odisha—Prashanta Nanda, Achyutananda Samanta and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik—took oath in Odia.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MPs elected from Telengana—Prakash Banda, Joginapally Santosh Kumar and Lingamaiah Yadav—took oath in Telugu. BJP’s Bhupendra Yadav, Kirodi Lal Meena and Madanlan Saini, who were elected from Rajasthan, took oath in Hindi.

Among others who took oath were G. C. Chandrasekhar and L Hanumanthaiah, who were elected from Karanataka on a Congress ticket. Friends and family of members, who took oath on Wednesday, were seen in the visitors’ gallery.

After taking oath, the members walked up to Naidu who warmly shook hands with them and then went on to sign the member’s register. The members then greeted senior leaders present in the House with folded hands.