Dream girl, Dara set to retire from Rajya Sabha

From August 25, the glamour quotient in Rajya Sabha will considerably lessen as former actor Hema Malini is among the seven presidential nominees scheduled to retire. The dream girl is bound to leave behind a trail of sighs.

Others who will be on their way out are wrestler and actor Dara Singh, economist Bimal Jalan, journalist Chandan Mitra, lawyer Ram Jethmalani, Narayan Singh Parmar, and former ISRO chief Dr Kasturirangan.

The presidential nominees are from fields of academia, arts and culture. The president may nominate 12 members to the Upper House. Lobbying has  started for candidates who will replace those retiring. Writer Javed Akhtar’s name is doing the rounds.

According to Congress sources, a significant section of the party wants former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee to be one of these nominees, even though Chatterjee himself has not been sounded out and no one is sure whether he will agree to it.  

“We want Somnathda to be a member of the Upper House. His distinguished record as MP and speaker should not be allowed to go to waste,” a senior minister in the government said.

There is also speculation that former reserve bank governor C Rangarajan may make a comeback to the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.