Jaitley takes oath as Rajya Sabha member for new term

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, re-elected to the Rajya Sabha last month, on Sunday took oath for a new six-year term.

"Took oath of office as Rajya Sabha member representing Uttar Pradesh," Jaitley tweeted, attaching pictures of the oath-taking ceremony held in Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu's chamber in Parliament House in New Delhi.

Union Ministers Ananth Kumar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Piyush Goyal, Hardeep S Puri, Vijay Goel and Shiv Pratap Shukla were present.

Leader of Opposition in the Upper House Ghulam Nabi Azad and several senior BJP leaders, including MPs Bhupender Yadav, Jagadambika Pal, Conrad Sangma and Karnataka's former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa were also there.

Jaitley was appointed Leader of the House on April 2 but could not take oath as a Rajya Sabha member for the fourth term earlier due to ill-health.

Suffering from a kidney problem, he was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here on April 6.

He was slated to undergo a kidney transplant but was discharged after dialysis for three days since the donor's organ "did not match".

While he was earlier elected to the Upper House for three consecutive terms from Gujarat, this time he has been elected from Uttar Pradesh.