Rajya Sabha bids farewell to 11 members retiring from the upper house

Rajya Sabha on Wednesday bid farewell to 11 of its members who will retire in November this year.

When the House met, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu mentioned that 11 MPs from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand will be retiring in November.

They include Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, BSP's Veer Singh and Raj Babbar of Congress.

Others who will retire are: Javed Ali Khan (SP), P L Punia (Congress), Rajaram (BSP), Neeraj Shekhar (BJP), Arun Singh (BJP), Ravi Prakash Verma (SP) and Chandrapal Singh Yadav (SP).

Naidu said some of the members will return to the House after re-election.

Wednesday is the last date of the current monsoon session after the government decided to curtail the 18-day session in view of the pandemic.

The session that started on September 14 was to continue till October 1.

Naidu asked retiring members if they wanted to speak.

None of the SP, BSP and Congress members were present in the House because of the opposition boycott of the proceedings against the suspension of eight MPs.

Neeraj Shekhar, who last year switched over from SP to BJP, said he has been fortunate to have been first elected to Lok Sabha and then to Rajya Sabha.

"As a kid, I used to come to Parliament House with my father (former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar) and we used to play in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha... There wasn't much security in those days. Since then, I aspired to become an MP," he said.

Stating that bringing legislations that will change the future of children should be a priority, he said he prays for a clean, educated, and strong country.

"We will be missing you and other members retiring in November," Naidu said.