Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha on Friday, 23 August. The oath was administered by Rajya Sabha chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu.
Top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel and Anand Sharma were present during the oath taking in the Chairman's chamber.
Singh was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan on 19 August. He was declared ‘elected unopposed’ as the deadline for filing nominations for the bypoll ended.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot congratulated Singh on his election to the Upper House of the Parliament.
Singh was nominated by the Congress while the BJP did not field any candidate for the bypoll, necessitated due to the death of Rajya Sabha MP Madan Lal Saini.
After filing his nominations, Singh expressed his sympathies to the family of the former BJP leader by saying: "I recognise that these are sad circumstances in which the vacancy has arisen. I convey my heartfelt condolences to the members of the Saini family."
The former prime minister was a Rajya Sabha member from Assam for five consecutive terms between 1991 and 2019. His tenure in the Upper House had ended on 14 June.
Neeraj Shekhar Elected Unopposed to RS From UP
Neeraj Shekhar, son of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha as well on Monday.
No other nomination had been filed from the seat.
He had filed his nomination on 14 August as the BJP candidate for the 26 August Rajya Sabha bypoll from Uttar Pradesh in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the party's state unit chief Swatantra Dev Singh.
The bypoll was necessitated due to Shekhar's resignation from the Rajya Sabha to join the ruling BJP. The term of the seat is up to 25 November 2020.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)
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