Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw were among the 14 who took oath as members of the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.  Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar administered the oath to them in the new Parliament house building.While Sonia took oath as a member of the Upper House from Rajasthan, Vaishnaw was sworn in as a member of the same house from Odisha.

Sonia Gandhi has become a Rajya Sabha member for the first time. She took oath in the presence of Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. Her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also present during her oath-taking.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh and secretary general P C Mody were also present.

Sonia Gandhi will be the second member of the Gandhi family to enter the Rajya Sabha after former prime minister and her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, who had a two-and-a-half-year tenure (from August 1964 to February 1967) as a member of the Upper House.

Congress leaders Ajay Maken and Syed Naseer Hussain from Karnataka, BJP leader R P N Singh from Uttar Pradesh, and BJP member Samik Bhattacharya from West Bengal were among the 14 who took the Rajya Sabha oath.

Sanjay Kumar Jha of JD(U) also took oath as a member from Bihar, Subhashish Khuntia and Debashish Samantaray, both of BJD took oath as members from Odisha, while Madan Rathore of BJP took oath as RS member representing Rajasthan.