New Delhi, May 2 (PTI): Aam Aadmi Party leaders Raghav Chadha, Ashok Kumar Mittal and Sanjeev Arora on Monday took oath as their party’s Rajya Sabha members from Punjab.
Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu administered the oath to the newly-elected AAP members of Rajya Sabha in his chamber at Parliament House.
All the three AAP leaders were elected unopposed from Punjab in March as no other political party had nominated any candidate the state for the Rajya Sabha elections.
Naidu advised the new members to go through various publications, including ‘Rajya Sabha at Work’, ‘Practice and Procedure of Parliament’, the ‘Members Handbook’, ‘Rule Book’ among others to enable them to become conversant with the procedures of the House and enrich their knowledge about its functioning.
Minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan, deputy chairman Harivansh, Rajya Sabha secretary-general P C Mody and other senior officers of the RS Secretariat were also present during the oath-taking.
While Chadha is a senior leader of the AAP, Mittal is the founder of Phagwara-based Lovely Professional University (LPU), the first private university in the state and one of the largest in India.
Chadha is considered to have played a significant role in the AAP’s stupendous victory in the Punjab assembly polls.
He was co-incharge of the AAP’s political affairs in Punjab where the Arvind Kejriwal-led party contested the assembly polls and came out victorious winning 92 seats.
Chadha expressed his gratitude to Kejriwal for giving him this big responsibility.
“Will use the platform to raise the problems of Punjab and the country,” he said.
Arora, a businessman from Ludhiana, runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust which he founded after his parents lost their lives to cancer. The trust has treated more than 160 cancer patients free of cost.
Arora is also on the governing board of Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana and a member of the apex council of the Punjab Cricket Association.
“It is an honour to be conferred upon the responsibilities in the upper house of Parliament. I will strive to fulfil the duties entrusted to me to the best of my abilities, and will make every possible effort towards progress and development of my people,” Mittal said after taking the oath.
