Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday bid farewell to the retiring 72 Rajya Sabha, saying that they should come back to the House given their rich Parliamentary experiences.
Speaking in the Upper House, the Prime Minister noted that the retiring MPs include those who have been members of the Rajya Sabha for three and four terms.
"We have spent a long time in this Parliament. This House has contributed a lot to us also. In fact, the House has given us more than what we have contributed," said the Prime Minister, who at the outset of his farewell speech wished that the retiring MPs would be able to come back to the House.
The Prime Minister stated that the retiring MPs are reservoirs of experiences. "Sometimes experiences are more useful than academic knowledge. The experiences help us in solving problems and the mistakes of the new are minimised," the Prime Minister said in the Rajya Sabha.
He also said that such MPs should take their rich experiences to all parts of the country.
"The house naturally has a sense of loss when MPs with so much experience leave. Those who do not have experience have far more responsibilities. Let us resolve that whatever we have learned from the retiring MPs should be carried forward for the progress of the nation. We will say to the retiring members 'come again'," he added
A total of 72 retiring members of the Rajya Sabha on Thursday had a group photo with Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
The event was organised before the Upper House bid farewell to the retiring members. Some of the members are retiring this month and some of them are retiring a little later.
Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, deputy leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and senior Congress leader Anand Sharma, former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, Subramanian Swamy, Suresh Prabhu, A K Antony, and nominated members Swapan Dasgupa and Roopa Ganguly are among the MPs who are retiring from the Rajya Sabha in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, voting for the 13 Rajya Sabha seats will take place today across six states. Five Rajya Sabha nominees of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) have already been elected to the Upper House unopposed on the back of the party sweeping the Assembly elections in the state recently.
The BJP nominee S Phangnon Konyak has also been elected to the Upper House unopposed from Nagaland. She will be the first woman member of the Rajya Sabha from Nagaland.The BJP candidate Sikander Kumar has also been elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed from Himachal Pradesh. With the BJP having 43 MLAs in the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly, Congress hadn't fielded candidate in the biennial polls for the Rajya Sabha.
For six other Rajya Sabha seats, voting is underway in Kerala, Tripura and Assam.
In Tripura, the ruling BJP has fielded state unit party chief Manik Saha while the Left Front has nominated senior CPI (M) leader Bhanu Lal Saha. Kerala will elect three members for the Rajya Sabha.
Incidentally, one-third of the members of the Rajya Sabha from each state retire every two years on the completion of their six-year terms.
( With inputs from ANI )
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