RS chairman administers oath to two new members from Tripura, Assam

The Vice President of India and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday administered the oath to two newly elected Members of the upper house of Parliament.

Dhankhar administered the oath to Tripura BJP president Rajib Bhattacharjee and former Assam MLA Mission Ranjan Das in Parliament House in New Delhi.

BJP President and Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda also attended the brief oath-taking ceremony.

The two Rajya Sabha seats in Assam fell vacant after Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa successfully fought the Lok Sabha elections and became MPs in the lower house of the parliament.

Bhattacharjee was elected to the Upper House on September 3 after defeating CPI(M) candidate and former MLA Sudhan Das in the by-election.

The lone Rajya Sabha seat in Tripura fell vacant after former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb quit following his election to the Lok Sabha from the Tripura West parliamentary seat.

Bhattacharjee (53) was appointed Tripura BJP chief on August 25, 2022, replacing incumbent Chief Minister Manik Saha, who became the state President in January 2020 and was holding the party chief's post even after assuming the office of the Chief Minister on May 15, 2022.

A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) loyalist for the past 36 years, Bhattacharjee had unsuccessfully contested last year’s Assembly elections from Banamalipur.

Two previous BJP Rajya Sabha members from Tripura – Manik Saha (2022) and Biplab Kumar Deb (2022-2024) – could not complete their six-year term as Upper House members.

Saha quit his Rajya Sabha membership after becoming the Chief Minister in May 2022.

Also, former Union Minister Rameswar Teli and former MLA Mission Ranjan Das, both BJP candidates, were elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Assam on August 26 as the opposition refrained from fielding candidates against two vacant berths in the upper house.