Parliament After Ghulam Nabi Azad's retirement, Mallikarjun Kharge becomes Opposition leader in Rajya Sabha
New Delhi/IBNS: Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge became the new Opposition leader in Rajya Sabha after veteran parliamentarian Ghulam Nabi Azad retired from the upper house of Parliament.
Bidding farewell to Azad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday became emotional and said, "I have known Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad for years. We were Chief Ministers together. We had interacted even before I became CM, when Azad Sahab was very much in the active politics. He has a passion not many know about - gardening."
"I will never forget Shri Azad’s efforts and Shri Pranab Mukherjee’s efforts when people from Gujarat were stuck in Kashmir due to a terror attack. Ghulam Nabi Ji was constantly following up, he sounded as concerned as if those stuck were his own family members," the Prime Minister said in teary eyes.
Azad was the Chief Minister of the erstwhile state Jammu and Kashmir, which is now a Union Territory, during the terror attack.
Apart from Azad, three other MPs, Mir Mohammad Fayaz, Shamsher Singh and Nazir Ahmad Laway are retiring from Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, between Feb 10 and 15.
