The award is to be given for 5 consecutive years starting from 2013 to 2017; Tyagi’s nomination is seen as attempt by BJP to keep its ally JD(U) happy.
New Delhi: BJP MP from Bihar Hukum Dev Narayan and senior JD(U) leader K.C. Tyagi have been nominated for the ‘Outstanding Parliamentarian’ award.
Parliament has decided to give this award for five years from 2013 to 2017, ThePrint has learnt. Names of winners for each of these years will be decided after another meeting of the jury panel next week, officials said.
While Narayan is a former Union minister of state who represents the Madhubani constituency in Bihar, Tyagi is a former Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar and national spokesperson of the JD(U).
Tyagi’s nomination is seen as an attempt by the ruling BJP to keep its ally JD(U) happy.
The JD(U) returned to the NDA fold in August last year with Nitish Kumar snapping ties with the Lalu Prasad-led RJD and forming a coalition government with the BJP in Bihar.
Although there was a reshuffle of the Union council of ministers a month later, the JD(U) did not get a berth. Tyagi’s nomination now is seen as an attempt at some damage control.
“These two leaders (Narayan and Tyagi) are the frontrunners for the title, keeping in view their performance, regularity in Parliament and strong recommendations,” a source in home ministry said.
A committee comprising present and former parliamentarians and officials from the home ministry finalises a list of names after judging the nominees on several parameters and forwards it to the Lok Sabha Speaker. The Speaker is the head of the committee and declares the final results.
“For the award, nominations are invited from political parties. After the parties nominate their senior members, the list is sent for scrutiny and the final names are then decided by the committee,” an official told ThePrint.
“This time there will be five parliamentarians receiving the award for each year from 2013 to 2017,” he said, adding that another meeting will decide the names for each year.
The sources said that Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav, the party’s floor leader in the Rajya Sabha, also stands a good chance of winning the award for 2015.
“Two rounds of meetings have already been held to finalise the names. A final meeting will be held this week and the list will then be sent to the Speaker,” the official said.
“It became difficult to zero in on five names as there were plenty of recommendations and the competition was tough,” he added.
The award was launched in 1995, and past recipients include former PMs Chandra Shekhar and Manmohan Singh, former President Pranab Mukherjee, finance minister Arun Jaitley and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.