Rajya Sabha gives warm send off to 54 retiring members

NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha today gave a warm send off to 54 members who retired today amid recollection of some nostalgic moments and experiences.

Some members made suggestions including better utilisation of Parliament time as they bade good bye to the Upper House after remaining member for six years.

"...today, we bid farewell to some of our colleagues, who are retiring in the months of April and May this year on completion of their term of office," Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari said.

54 members from Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal will be completing their term of office.

15 of the retiring members have been re-elected. "I am happy to note that some of the members have been re-elected, but the House will certainly miss those who would not be coming back," Ansari said.

Addressing retiring members, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, "As I listen to farewell speeches, I do get a feeling that there is something uniting us regardless of caste, class and religion...I join all other colleagues in bidding farewell. I wish them best of luck."

He hoped that whatever they do next, they will have successful innings.

Singh also said that retiring members will be entering a different phase of life and their experience would be of immense help in their public life.

Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley said some of the members will not be coming back to the House and hoped they will continue to contribute through their public lives.

The senior BJP leader recalled that there may be political differences, but members were rarely seen clashing at individual level.