After 25 years in Lok Sabha, Sonia Gandhi pads up for Rajya Sabha innings

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

New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi on Thursday padded up for a new innings in her Parliamentary career as she took took oath as a Rajya Sabha MP, after being a member of Lok Sabha for the past 25 years.

Her entry into Rajya Sabha also came two days after former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh retired from the Upper House after 33 years.

Sonia, who has been representing Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency since 1999, was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. She is occupying the seat vacated by Singh, who decided against re-contesting owing to his health.

Also the Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, Sonia chose to exit electoral politics at the age of 76 and there is intense speculation about who will succeed her as Congress candidate in the Gandhi family borough.

Neither the Congress nor her daughter and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have not made it clear whether she will contest Rae Bareli. Priyanka had campaigned for Sonia extensively in Rae Bareli and there has been demand from the ground to field her.

Congress president and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and her children former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were present. Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh and Leader of the House and Union Minister Piyush Goyal were also present during the oath taking ceremony. 

As Sonia took oath, Kharge posted on 'X', "her courageous resilience and dignified grace, in the wake of adversity and upheaval, shall continue to guide our Parliamentary strategy. She has completed 25 years serving the Lok Sabha, and now my fellow members and I await her presence in the Upper House. I wish her a fruitful tenure ahead."

Congress posted on its official 'X' handle, "as a Rajya Sabha member, she will continue to defend democratic values as well as ensure justice for all sections of society."

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar administered the oath to Sonia and 13 others, including Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw (Odisha), Congress leaders Ajay Maken and Syed Naseer Hussain (Karnataka) and BJP’s RPN Singh (Uttar Pradesh) and Samik Bhattacharya (West Bengal).

Others who took oath included JD(U)’s Sanjay Kumar Jha (Bihar), BJD’s Subhashish Khuntia and Debashish Samantaray (Odisha), BJP’s Madan Rathore (Rajasthan), YSRCP’s Golla Baburao, Meda Raghunadha Reddy and Yerram Venkata Subba Reddy (Andhra Pradesh), and BRS’ Ravi Chandra Vaddiraju (Telangana).