Sonia Gandhi became the second member of Gandhi family to take up Rajya Sabha seat
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ April 4,2024
Today, Sonia Gandhi became a Rajya Sabha member and took the oath in the presence of Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
This is for the first time that she has joined the elite upper house (Rajya Sabha) as earlier she remained member of the lower house (lok sabha). Sonia Gandhi took oath as a member of the Upper House from Rajasthan. Her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also present during her oath-taking.
Earlier, Indira Gandhi, mother-in-law of Sonia Gandhi remained Rajya Sabha member for a limited period of time. After Jawahar Lal Nehru’s death in 1964 she was appointed a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and served in Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting. She remained Rajya Sabha member from 1964-67 from Uttar Pradesh (UP). After that she remained Lok Sabha MP from 1967 to till her death in 1984.
Jawahar Lal Nehru father of Indira Gandhi and the first prime minister of India remained Lok Sabha MP. Other members of Gandhi clan including Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Maneka Gandhi, Varun Gandhi remained Lok Sabha MPs.
Whereas Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday administered the oath of 14 political leaders as Rajya Sabha members, including former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Full list of Rajya Sabha MPs sworn in today:
Sonia Gandhi (Congress) – Rajasthan
Ashwini Vaishnaw (BJP) – Odisha
Ajay Makan (Congress) – Karnataka
Syed Naseer Hussain (Congress) – Karnataka
RNP Singh (BJP) – Uttar Pradesh
Samik Bhattacharya (BJP) – West Bengal
Sanjay Kumar Jha (JDU) – Bihar
Subhashish Khuntia (BJD) – Odisha
Debashish Samantaray (BJD) – Odisha
Madan Rathore (BJP) – Rajasthan
Golla Baburao (YSRCP) – Telangana
Meda Raghunadha Reddy (YSRCP) – Telangana
Yerram Venkata Subba Reddy (YSRCP) – Telangana
Ravi Chandra Vaddiraju (BRS) – Telangana
