Manmohan Singh takes oath as Member of Rajya Sabha

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 23

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Friday took oath as Member of Rajya Sabha, in what will be his sixth term.  

Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu administered the oath in his chamber to the 87-year-old Singh.  

Leader of the House Thawar Chand Gehlot, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, Deputy Leader of the Congress in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma, Congress president and Lok Sabha Member Sonia Gandhi, Lok Sabha Member Rahul Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan Sachin Pilot and Rajya Sabha Member Ahmed Patel were present at the occasion. 

Singh has been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan in a by-election on August 19 following the demise of sitting Member Madan Lal Saini. 

Singh had previously been elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1991, 1995, 2001, 2007 and 2013. He was the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha during 1998-2004 and leader of the house as the prime minister from 2004 to 2014. 

He is the among the oldest among the members of the House of Elders, only younger to 96-year-old Ram Jethmalani, (96), Motilal Vora (91) and the C.P. Thakur (88).

While Mahendra Prasad is serving the seventh term in the Rajya Sabha, Jethmalani is in his sixth term and Vora is serving his fourth term in Rajya Sabha.