Rajya Sabha secretariat plans swearing-in of new MPs after May 31

New Delhi: With domestic airline services set to resume from Monday, the Rajya Sabha secretariat is considering swearing-in of the newly-elected MPs after May 31. Of the 55 Rajya Sabha vacancies in 17 states, created between April 3 and April 13, 37 MPs were elected unopposed while election is to take place for the remaining 18 seats. Rajya Sabha chairman and vice president Venkaiah Naidu has asked the secretariat to consider the possibility of bringing in the newly elected MPs to conduct the swearing-in. However, Naidu wants social distancing norms to be strictly followed.

Hence, the MPs could be called in batches of two or three and the swearing-in could take place in Naidu’s chamber. No family member of the MP would be allowed to accompany him/her and the swearing-in might take place in the presence of not more than two or three persons. In the last two months, a lot of members have been asking about holding standing committee meetings through videoconferencing.

A discussion took place between the vice president and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla where both were keen on looking at the possibilities of conducting virtual committee meetings. Naidu was keen on allowing virtual meeting and a lot of work was done in that direction. The secretariat was also looking at the practicalities and technicalities to facilitate such meetings.


However, since the government is looking at a lockdown exit strategy, it was decided to wait till this month end. Both the RS chairman and LS speaker think that if flight services resume and there is further easing of the lockdown, a physical meeting of the committees could be possible in the coming days, rather than virtual ones. The leader of both the houses and leader of opposition have been kept in the loop of the Parliament secretariat’s planning on this.