Ex-President Kovind to be chief guest at Lokmat Parliamentary Awards event on March 14

The awards are given annually to members of Parliament in eight different categories for their outstanding contribution to parliamentary democracy

India's former President Ram Nath Kovind will be the chief guest at the 4th edition of Lokmat Parliamentary Awards function to be held on March 14.

Chairman of the editorial board of Lokmat Media Group and former Rajya Sabha member Vijay Darda called on Kovind in New Delhi on Wednesday and invited him to be the chief guest at the function.

The former president has accepted the request to grace the event to be held in the national capital, a Lokmat Media release said.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Biju Janata Dal's Bhartruhari Mahtab, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien, Nationalist Congress Party's Vandana Chavan, Bharatiya Janata Party MPs Tejasvi Surya and Locket Chatterjee, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Kumar Jha have been unanimously selected as recipients for the fourth (2022) edition of the Lokmat Parliamentary Awards, it said.

The awards are given annually to members of Parliament in eight different categories (four each from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha) for their outstanding contribution to parliamentary democracy.

The awardees were selected by a distinguished jury headed by NCP president Sharad Pawar during a meeting recently, the release said.

The jury examined the parliamentary contributions of all MPs for the years 2020 and 2021 to select the winners, it said.

The Lokmat Parliamentary Awards were instituted in 2017 to recognise and encourage the constructive work MPs do throughout the year.

The awards remained suspended for the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, BJP leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, and NCP chief Sharad Pawar have been among the recipients of the award in the previous editions, the release said.

The Lokmat National Conclave on the topic 'Indian Democracy: How Close to Maturity' will also be held the same day where leaders from different political parties will express their views on the subject, it said.