Eight Lok Sabha MPs, including the Congress’s House leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and five Rajya Sabha members, including John Brittas of the CPM and Manoj Jha of the RJD, have been nominated for the Sansad Ratna Awards 2023, to recognise their parliamentary performance under various categories.
Former Rajya Sabha MP of the CPM, T.K. Rangarajan, who represented Tamil Nadu for two terms, has been nominated for the lifetime achievement award.
The award is named after former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who suggested the introduction of the Sansad Ratna Awards.
The awards, presented on behalf of civil society, will be given on March 25 this year. Two MPs — BJP’s Sukanta Majumdar from Balurghat in Bengal and Congress’s Kuldeep Rai Sharma from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands constituency — have been picked for their overall performance in the “first time MP” category.
The overall excellence award in the general category has gone to BJP’s Bidyut Baran Mahato from Jharkhand’s Jamshedpur, while BJP’s Heena Vijayakumar Gavit from Nandurbar in Maharashtra was selected as the best woman MP.
The selections have been made by the jury committee of parliamentarians and civil society, chaired by junior parliamentary affairs minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and co-chaired by former chief election commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy.
In the Rajya Sabha, Brittas and Jha have been picked for the overall excellence award, while NCP’s Fauzia Tahseen Ahmed Khan from Maharashtra was named in the women MP category.
Adhir Chowdhury topped for initiating debates, while BJP’s Gopal Chinayya Shetty in moving private members’ bills.
In the “topper in Questions” category, two MPs — BJP’s Sudhir Gupta from Madhya Pradesh and NCP’s Amol Ramsing Kolhe from Maharashtra — have been nominated.
The contribution of two parliamentary panels — finance and transport, tourism and culture — has also been recognised.