On Wednesday, 45 of the 61 newly elected Rajya Sabha members took oath. The oath taking ceremony took place inside the Rajya Sabha hall while Parliament is not in session. The ceremony was marked with RS Chairman Venkaiah Naidu’s address to the new house members, urging them “not to fall prey to the temptation of disrupting the proceedings of the House for short-term gains.”

BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) has now majority in Rajya Sabha with 85 members. This is double than Congress which stands with 40 members. Now with majority votes, there is no roadblock in sight for the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government for any proposed legislation.

The ceremony was seeing some cross-overs, as few former Congress members could be seen sitting on the BJP side after they switched over the parties. These included now BJP MP Jyotiraditya Scindia and former chief whip of Congress Bhubaneshwar Kalita.

Out of the 45 members who took oath on Wednesday, 36 were the first timers in Rajya Sabha, the Upper House. 12 members have been re-elected which include NCP (National Congress Party) leader Sharad Pawar, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and Rajya Sabha deputy chairman and Janata Dal United leader Harivansh Narayan Singh.

Members took oath in ten languages in the ceremony – Bodo, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Odia, Manipuri, Bengali, Tamil, Hindi and English.

Chairman Naidu urged the members to be aware and keen to follow their noble responsibility being a part of the apex legislature. He said, “Ensuring rule of law is the spirit of our law of the land, the Constitution. It shall begin with your compliance with the rules and procedures of this house.”