Sonia Gandhi's first ever Rajya Sabha term starts today
Aayush Goel
Gurugram, April 4, 2024:
77-year-old Congress veteran and former longest serving party President Sonia Gandhi has started her first ever Rajya Sabha stint today. Gandhi was elected unopposed from Rajasthan on February 20 and her six year long term starts today. She was sworn in along with 13 others including railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Vice-President and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar administered the oath to them.
This is Sonia Gandhi's first tenure in the Rajya Sabha and before that she has been elected as a Lok Sabha MP five times. Before this, Sonia's mother-in-law and former Prime Minister of the country, Indira Gandhi, has also been a Rajya Sabha MP for three years. In the outgoing 17th Lok Sabha formed in May 2019, Sonia Gandhi was elected MP for the fourth time from the Rae Bareli parliamentary seat of Uttar Pradesh. However, before that, in October 1999, she became an MP by winning the Lok Sabha elections for the first time from Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh and Bellary seat in Karnataka at the same time. From Bellary, Sonia defeated BJP's fierce leader Sushma Swaraj, although immediately after that, Sonia resigned from the Bellary seat. Apart from this, during the tenure of the 14th Lok Sabha in the year 2006, Sonia once resigned from the Rae Bareli seat and won a by-election from the same seat.
“As per the law if a person who is already a member of the Lok Sabha and is elected a member of the Rajya Sabha then the Lok Sabha seat is considered vacated from the date of Rajya Sabha election. Gandhi therefore was a non parliamentarian for the period between 20 February 2024 and 3 April 2024,” said Punjab and Haryana High Court advocate Hemant Kumar. Elaborating on parliamentary career of the Nehru-Gandhi family, Kumar further added that apart from Sonia Gandhi, who has been a Lok Sabha MP for 5 times, Maneka Gandhi has been the Lok Sabha MP for the most 8 times till date and she is also contesting for the 9th term from Sultanpur seat of Uttar Pradesh on BJP ticket. Apart from this, Indira Gandhi was an MP for 4 times, Rajiv Gandhi 4 times, Rahul Gandhi 4 times, Varun Gandhi 3 times, Feroze Gandhi 2 times while Sanjay Gandhi has been a Lok Sabha MP once. Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first Prime Minister and Indira Gandhi's father, was elected to the Lok Sabha three times.