Rajya Sabha Chairman administers oath to new members from Tripura and Assam

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar administered the oath to two newly elected members of the upper house of Parliament on Tuesday, September 10, 2024. The ceremony, held in Parliament House in New Delhi, welcomed Tripura BJP President Rajib Bhattacharjee and former Assam MLA Mission Ranjan Das. Union Health Minister and BJP President J. P. Nadda was also present at the brief oath-taking ceremony.

The seats filled by Bhattacharjee and Das had recently become vacant. In Assam, the vacancies arose after Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa were elected to the Lok Sabha. Bhattacharjee, elected to the Rajya Sabha on September 3, won the by-election against CPI-M candidate Sudhan Das. In Tripura, the seat fell vacant after former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb resigned to take up his Lok Sabha role from the Tripura West constituency.

Bhattacharjee, who took over as Tripura BJP chief on August 25, 2022, previously contested the Assembly elections from Banamalipur. His appointment follows a series of changes in Rajya Sabha representation from Tripura, with Manik Saha and Biplab Kumar Deb having vacated their positions early due to other political roles. In Assam, the Rajya Sabha seats were filled unopposed by BJP candidates Rameswar Teli and Mission Ranjan Das after opposition parties chose not to contest.