Season of farewell and welcome

Members of Parliament are set to spend the remainder of the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament attending farewell lunches and dinners and making farewell and welcome speeches. Thursday is the last day of Vice-president M Hamid Ansari’s 10-year tenure. The vice-president is also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha. House members will mark the day with farewell speeches for Ansari. The next day would be marked by the oath-taking ceremony of Ansari’s successor, M Venkaiah Naidu, who after being sworn in this Friday would be welcomed to the Rajya Sabha as its new chairman. Members would also say their goodbyes to Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief Sitaram Yechury and Trinamool Congress (TMC) member D Bandyopadhyay, both of whom end their terms in this session that ends on Friday. TMC members also plan to host a lunch in Bandyopadhyay’s honour.