New Delhi: Fifty new members of Rajya Sabha, including Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Corporate Affairs Minister Premchand Gupta, today took oath as members of the House. The members were among 55 elected in the biennial elections to the Upper House.

Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan and Minister for Statistics and Project Implementation G K Vasan were among the members who took oath of allegiance to the Constitution.

Prominent among those sworn in included former bureaucrat N K Singh, Reliance Industries executive Parimal Nathwani, Videocon Industries head Venugopal Dhoot, Congress treasurer Motilal Vora and BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.

Chairman Hamid Ansari welcomed the newly-elected and re-elected members and said he looked forward to their contribution towards enriching the traditions of the House. "Coming as they do from diverse fields of society, I have no doubt in my mind that they will contribute immensely to enrich the debates in the House," he said.

From BJP, Shanta Kumar, C P Thakur, Bharat Singh Parmar, Purshotam Rupala, Prabha Jha and Balbir Punj took oath. Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas, former Union Ministers T Subbarami Reddy, former Manipur Chief Minister Rishang Keishing and Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan were other prominent MPs who took oath.

Source : PTI