Four elected Rajya Sabha MPs from Odisha to take oath on July 22

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Jul 18, 2020 at 12:01 PM

Bhubaneswar: Four newly elected members of Rajya Sabha from Odisha will take oath on July 22 in Parliament, New Delhi.

Official source said that the newly elected MPs will be administered oath in the House chamber to maintain social distancing norm due to COVID-19.

4 Rajya Sabha MPs from Odisha take oath in House chamber

Odisha politicians don chef’s hat during COVID lockdown

This is for the first time, the oath taking of members will take place in the House chamber during inter-session period due to pandemic situation.

The oath of office is usually administered either during the Parliament session or in the chamber of Rajya Sabha Chairman when House is not in session.

Total 61 members have been recently elected to Rajya Sabha from 20 states, out of which 4 are from Odisha.

In view of COVID-19 situations, each member will be allowed only one guest to accompany them at the oath taking ceremony in the House chamber.

The members, who will fail to attend the ceremony, will be administered oath during the ensuing monsoon session.

Earlier, the oath-taking ceremony was deferred in view of concerns expressed by some of them over travelling to New Delhi during lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic.

With the move, the leaders Subhas Singh, Munna Khan, Sujit Kumar and Mamata Mahanta from Odisha are among 61 Rajya Sabha MPs will be administered oath on scheduled date.

The four BJD leaders had been elected to the Upper House unopposed on March 18 as opposition parties BJP and Congress did not field any nominee for the Rajya Sabha polls scheduled to be held on March 26.

Though four Independent candidates had filed nomination papers, their candidature were rejected for not having the required 10 MLAs as proposers.

The Rajya Sabha elections were held for 61 between March and June, of which 42 members were elected unopposed in March.

Between March and June, RS elections were held for 61 seats, of which 42 members were elected unopposed in March.

Out of 61 newly elected MPs, 43 have been elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time. Only 12 members, who completed their tenure have been re-elected.