Doctor-turned-politician Santanu Sen will try his guitar skills while his Trinamool Congress colleague in Rajya Sabha Dola Sen will render Rabindra Sangeet. DMK's Tiruchi Siva will sing a Tamil protest song while BJP's Rupa Ganguly, the 'Draupadi' fame, and NCP's Vandana Chavan will sing Hindi songs and BJP's Ramachandra Jhangra a patriotic song.
Half-a-dozen Rajya Sabha MPs will be performing at a farewell dinner for 72 retiring MPs in the next three months organised by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday at his residence, hours after the lawmakers will deliver their speeches in the Upper House in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge among others.
At the dinner, Naidu will be presenting all the 72 retiring MPs mementos. Another 19 retired MPs, who earlier could not receive the mementos, have also been invited. After the individual performances, all MPs will be invited for a "chorus song".
Rajya Sabha Secretariat officials said the MPs will be showcasing their cultural talents at such a function after a gap of 20 years.
On Thursday, there will be no official business, as the day has been marked for farewell speeches. Naidu, Modi, Kharge, leaders of various parties and retiring MPs will speak in the House.
Of the 72 MPs retiring between April and July, 30 belong to the BJP while 13 will be from the Congress. Three each from BJD, DMK, AIADMK and Akali Dal, two each from CPI(M), TRS, BSP and Samajwadi Party and one each from LJD, YSR Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena will be retiring. Two of them – Mary Kom and Narendra Jadhav, who are retiring are nominated members but have not joined any party.
Of the 30 in the BJP fold, five are nominated MPs who had joined the party and it included Subramanian Swamy. Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal and Mukthar Abbas Naqvi are also retiring during this period but will be returning to the House in the elections.
From the Congress, the prominent names that will be retiring are Deputy Leader Anand Sharma, Chief Whip Jairam Ramesh and Kapil Sibal. Sibal is unlikely to return to the House after his interview in which he said that the Gandhis should be out of the party's leadership.
Interestingly, by July, AAP will have ten MPs in the House, up from three following its stunning victory in Punjab while Akali Dal will not have a single MP in Rajya Sabha. BSP will be reduced to just one MP. Congress, which has 34 MPs at present, will come below 30 while the BJP is likely to marginally improve its tally.
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