Sharad Pawar, Ramdas Athawale Among 19 Members Take Oath

New Delhi: NCP-SCP leader Sharad Pawar and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale were among the 19 new Rajya Sabha members who took oath here on Monday. The oath was taken in the presence of Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan. Deputy Speaker Harivansh and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju were also present at the ceremony in the Rajya Sabha chamber.

Senior executives of the relevant parties were also present in the parliament. The newly elected members included five from Maharashtra, six from Tamil Nadu, five from West Bengal and three from Odisha.

The first person to take the oath was Maya Chintaman Ivnate from the BJP unit in Maharashtra, followed by Pawar, who arrived in a wheelchair. Ramrao Sakharam Wadkute (BJP), Jyoti Nagnath Waghmare (SS) and Athawale (RPI-A) were also sworn in as members representing Maharashtra in the Upper House.

While Manmohan Samal (BJP), Sanrupt Mishra (BJD) and Dilip Kumar Ray (Ind) were sworn in as members of Odisha, Constandine Ravindran (DMK), Christopher Manickam (Congress), LK Sudhish (DMDK), M Thambidurai (AIADMK), Tiruchi Siva (DMK) and Ambumani Ramadoss (PMK) were sworn in as members representing Tamil Nadu.

Babul Supriya Baral (AITC), Biswajit Sinha (BJP), Menaka Guruswamy (AITC), Rajeev Kumar (AITC) and Rukmini Mallik (AITC) from West Bengal took oath. Most members took oath in their regional languages. President Radhakrishnan congratulated all the newly elected members.