Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday took oath as a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan, marking an end to her 25 years of political experience as Lok Sabha MP.
Sonia Gandhi, who was also the longest serving party chief took oath here in the presence of Leader of the House Piyush Goyal, Leader of Opposition and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge. Sonia Gandhi was also accompanied by her daughter and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Rajya Sabha Chairman JP Dhankhar administered the oath to Sonia Gandhi.
In a post on X, Kharge congratulated Sonia Gandhi and said, “My best wishes to the Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi as she begins her new innings, by taking oath in the Rajya Sabha, today.”
“Her courageous resilience and dignified grace, in the wake of adversity and upheaval, shall continue to guide our Parliamentary strategy,” he said.
“She has completed 25 years serving the Lok Sabha, and now my fellow members and I await her presence in the Upper House. I wish her a fruitful tenure ahead,” Kharge added.
Sonia Gandhi contested from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Ballari in Karnataka Parliamentary seats in 1999 and won from both seats. However, she chose to retain the seat of Amethi, a family stronghold.
However, she then shifted to Rae Bareli seat in 2004, lsaving Amethi for her son Rahul Gandhi.
Sonia Gandhi was elected as party president in 1998 and she served as party’s chief till 2017 for over 22 years.
She again took over as party’s interim chief in 2019 and continued to be on the post for three years.
The 77-year-old led the grand old party to two back-to-back wins in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
However, it was followed by a low as the Congress party plunged to just 44 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.