Jaishankar takes oath as Rajya Sabha member
New Delhi, July. 8 (HS): External Affairs minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar who was elected last week to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat took oath as a member of the Upper House today.
On Friday, BJP leaders S. Jaishankar and Jugalji Thakor won the Rajya Sabha by-polls in Gujarat last week by defeating Congress’ Chandrika Chudasama and Gaurav Pandya. Out of the 182 members in the Gujarat Assembly, the BJP had 104 members of Legislative assembly (MLAs) while Congress had 71 MLAs.
Former top diplomat S. Jaishankar was appointed as the Minister of External Affairs (MEA) after Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected to power for a second term in May 2019.
Jaishankar, who has served as the former foreign secretary during Modi government’s first term in office, got elected to the Upper house from Gujarat last week in the by-polls following the two vacant Rajya Sabha seats left following the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah and Women and Child Development minister Smriti Irani after winning the Lok Sabha elections respectively from Gandhinagar and Amethi.
Jaishankar took oath in English after greeting the Chairman and other members present in the house. Amit Shah was also present in the House on the occasion.
Earlier, today all the members of the Upper house including the Chairman Venkaiah Naidu mourned the death of former secretary general of Rajya Sabha, Sudarshan Aggarwal.
