17 members take oath in Rajya Sabha

Seventeen members, including new and re-elected ones, today took oath in Rajya Sabha which reassembled after a month-long break.
    
Former Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar took oath as a nominated member in presence of chairman Hamid Ansari. Aiyar, who took oath in Tamil, received an applause from AIADMK members.
    
Defence minister AK Antony (Kerala), sports minister MS Gill (Punjab), along with Silvius Condpan (Congress MP from Assam), Ashwani Kumar (Congress MP from Punjab), and Naresh Gujral (SAD member from Punjab), were among the re-elected members who took oath.    

New members who took oath included Naznin Faruque (Assam), Bimla Kashyap Sood (Himachal Pradesh), KN Balagopal and TN Seema (both Kerala), Avinash Rai Khanna and Sukhdev Singh (both Punjab), Jharna Das Baidya (Tripura), and Naresh Chandra Agarwal (UP).
    
Nominated members who took oath included Javed Akhtar, Bhalchandra Mungekar and Ram Dayal Munda.
    
B Jayashree (new nominated MP) and Khekiho Zhimomi (Nagaland Peoples Front MP who has been re-elected) were not present in the House to take oath.