Nine members of Rajya Sabha take oath

The oath was administered by Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar in the Rajya Sabha chamber in Parliament House

Left to right in the top row, BJP’s Babubhai Jesangbhai Desai, TMC’s Derek O’Brien and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, and left to right in the bottom row, BJP’s Nagendra Ray and TMC’s Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Samirul Islam take oath as Rajya Sabha MPs, at Parliament House in New Delhi, on August 21, 2023. Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar presided over the ceremony. | Photo Credit: PTI

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was among nine MPs who took the oath as members of the Rajya Sabha on August 21.

The oath was administered by Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar in the Rajya Sabha chamber in Parliament House.

Mr. Jaishankar took the oath in English. This is his second term as a Rajya Sabha MP. He was first elected in 2019.

Deeply honoured to take my oath today as the member of the Rajya Sabha, the Council of States of India.

Thank the people of Gujarat, Prime Minister @narendramodi and @BJP4India for the opportunity to continue serving the people of the Nation.

आज भारत की राज्य सभा के सदस्य के… pic.twitter.com/bF4nKPLKca

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) August 21, 2023

Besides Mr. Jaishankar, the other BJP members who took the oath are Babubhai Jesangbhai Desai (Gujarat), Kesridevsinh Digvijaysinh Jhala (Gujarat), and Nagendra Ray (West Bengal).

Five Trinamool Congress MPs — Derek O'Brien, Dola Sen, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Prakash Chik Baraik and Samirul Islam — also took the oath. Mr. O'Brien, Ms. Sen, Mr. Islam and Mr. Ray took the oath in Bengali.

Of the nine members who took oath on Monday, five are newly elected — Nagendra Ray, Prakash Chik Baraik, Samirul Islam, Kesridevsinh Digvijaysinh Jhala and Babubhai Jesangbhai Desai.

Four members took the oath in Bengali, three in Hindi and two in English, a statement from the Rajya Sabha secretariat said.

Leader of the House and Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha P.C. Mody and other senior officials of the secretariat were also present on the occasion.