11 new members take oath in Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and senior Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav were among the 11 newly elected members of Rajya Sabha who took oath today.

Parrikar was greeted with thumping of desks when his name was called for taking oath. He took oath in Hindi after which he exchanged pleasantries with Chairman Hamid Ansari and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

All the 11 members - 10 elected from Uttar Pradesh and one from Uttrakhand - took oath or affirmed their allegiance to the Constitution in Hindi.

Besides Yadav, other members of Samajwadi Party who took oath included state minister Azam Khan's wife Tazeen Fatima, Neeraj Shekhar, son of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar, Ravi Prakash Verma, Javed Ali Khan and Chandrapal Singh Yadav.

BSP's Raja Ram and Veer Singh and Congress party's P L Punia also took oath. Punia was supported by SP. Manorama Dobariyal Sharma (Cong) was elected to Rajya Sabha from Uttrakhand.