Naidu, Swaraj bid farewell to PJ Kurien

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday bid farewell to outgoing Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha PJ Kurien.

Addressing the farewell of PJ Kurien, Naidu urged the ruling and opposition parties to find a suitable replacement for the former.

"I will be certainly be missing him, as my Deputy, he was doing most of the work. He is a multi-faceted personality, and always ensured the effective functioning of the house, which was the most important feature about him that attracted me the most. I hope in coming days that the ruling party and the Opposition will find a suitable replacement for PJ Kurien," Naidu said.

PJ Kurien also spoke at his farewell and expressed his dissatisfaction over disruptions in the house.

He said, "There will be disruptions in the Parliament, but that should not go beyond a point, as that is a loss for the nation. The ruling party and the Opposition should sit together and solve the differences in advance so that the disruptions should continue for a long period."

The farewell was attended by leaders cutting across party lines.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goel and Vijay Goel, leaders of various parties including CPI leader D Raja, TMC leader Manish Gupta, AIADMK's A Navaneethakrishnan and SR Balasubramoniyan and YSRCP leader Vijaya Sai Reddy were among the leaders who attended the ceremony.

Kurien previously served as a Union Minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government and was a member of the Lok Sabha for six consecutive terms from 1980 to 1999. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2005.