With Manmohan Singh's exit, no ex-PM in Parliament now

NEW DELHI: When former PM Manmohan Singh ceased to be a member of Rajya Sabha on Friday, it marked the first time in many years that there will be no former PM in Parliament with Janata Dal(S) leader HD Deve Gowda having lost his Lok Sabha election from Tumkur.

It was a break for Singh himself as he has been a member of Rajya Sabha for close to three decades, but the absence of former PMs in both Houses was the significant fallout of his retirement. Singh has represented Assam for long but Congress no longer has the numbers in the state to reelect him. He will now depend on Congress ally DMK to send him back to Rajya Sabha and while the party may not have a problem with such a proposal, there is no vacancy from Tamil Nadu just yet.

With Deve Gowda losing narrowly to his BJP opponent, there will no interventions from former PMs in Parliament. There have been former PMs in Parliament for some time now. In 1996, after Congress lost the elections, former PM PV Narasinha Rao was a member of the Lok Sabha.


Later, former PM Inder Gujral was member of Rajya Sabha and then, in 2004, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a member of Lok Sabha. Since 2014, Singh has occupied that slot along with Deve Gowda. Gujral passed away in 2012 and Vajpayee, who ceased to be an MP in 2009, passed away after prolonged illness in 2018.