Ambani, Bachchan clan dazzle RS

Anil Ambani, Jaya Bachchan sworn in as Upper House members.

Anil Ambani's day began early and it was productive. At 6.00 am, he set out for his compulsory jog along the capital's Rajpath. By 12.00 noon, he was a confirmed, independent member of the Rajya Sabha, India's club for the select elite.

Between 6.00 and 11.00 am, Ambani had traded his jogging shorts for a beautifully cut conservative brown suit complete with a silk tie, that he wore for his first day in the Rajya Sabha.

He was escorted to Parliament by colleagues and met up with friends, Amar Singh and Amitabh Bachchan, later. So, what was the Big B doing in Parliament?

Simple, he was accompanying his better half, Jaya Bachchan, who today took oath as a member for the Rajya Sabha from UP, representing the Samajwadi Party. Amitabh Bachchan, formerly a Lok Sabha MP from Allahabad, said he would not rejoin politics.

The Distinguished Visitors' Gallery (DVG, in Parliamentary slang), usually a dull and sleepy corner, today was full of distinguished visitors.

Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan were the men-in-black. Daughter Shweta wore pastels, her mother-in-law, Ritu Nanda, dazzled Parliament with her diamonds and papa-in-law Rajan Nanda was dapper in a dark suit. Tina Ambani was also present in the DVG in a business-like fawn sari.

But it was the father-son Amitabh-Abhishek duo who were the traffic stoppers.

They were mobbed in the galleries of Parliament, not just by the security staff, but also by MPs, many of whom have come to Parliament winning elections by margins of thousands and lakhs of votes.

Senior Congress leader and party General Secretary Mohsina Kidwai, who also took the Rajya Sabha oath today, said namaskar to the elder Bachchan. She then trotted off and actually returned to clasp his hand just to tell him what a wonderful actor she thought he was. Her smile would have melted an iceberg.

By 1.00 pm, it was all over. The Bachchan and Ambani clan left Parliament taking the sparkle with them. With the a wafer-thin majority separating the ruling party and the Opposition, and with the Samajwadi Party in perpetual opposition, it is the Rajya Sabha that promises to be the more interesting House in the days to come.