BJP’s Pabitra Margherita and Rwngwra Narzary of the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) took oath in the Upper House of Parliament on Monday after being elected as MP.
Additionally, four newly elected Rajya Sabha MPs also took oath in the House. They are Jebi Mather Hisham (Congress, Kerala); Sandosh Kumar (CPI, Kerala); A A Rahim (CPI-M, Kerala); and S Phangnon Konyak (BJP, Nagaland).
Before taking their seat in the House, the new members took oath before the President or some person appointed in that behalf by him.
The two Rajya Sabha seats in Assam went to polls on April 31.
While Margherita won 46 votes, its UPPL ally, Rwngwra Narzary won 44 votes. Narzary is the president of UPPL, which has seven MLAs in the House.
On the other hand, the Congress couldn’t retain the seat and had to settle with 35 votes. Former Assam Congress president Ripun Bora was the Opposition parties’ joint candidate for the lone seat that they were contesting.
It may be mentioned that 12 opposition MLAs voted for the BJP candidates – seven from Congress and five from AIUDF. Each winning candidate needs at least 43 votes.