5 MPs conferred Outstanding Parliamentarian award

Five seasoned Parliamentarians, including Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, on Wednesday, received “Outstanding Parliamentarian” award from President Ram Nath Kovind.

Other awardees are Najma Heptulla (2013), who was the longest serving Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha; BJP MP from Bihar Hukumdev Narayan Yadav (2014), who entered Parliament first time in 1979; Trinamool leader and former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi (2016) and BJD's Bhartruhari Mahtab (2017), a five- term MP from Cuttack in Odisha.

Azad, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and one of the seniormost leaders in Congress, got the award for 2013.

The awards were presented by Kovind at a function at the Central Hall of Parliament in the presence of lawmakers from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha as well as Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.