Rajya Sabha term to end for 5 Union ministers

Several Union ministers, including AK Antony and Ambika Soni, AICC general secretary Mohsina Kidwai, BSP leader Satish  Chandra Mishra and BJP's Arun Shourie are among 65 members whose term in the Rajya Sabha ends this year.

Union ministers Anand Sharma, MS Gill and Jairam Ramesh are also in the list which also includes senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu and Congress general secretary B K Hariprasad and senior leader Oscar Fernandes among others.

The term of Samajwadi Party's Jaya Bachchan is also coming to an end this year. Bachchan was earlier disqualified on the office of profit issue which had sparked a controversy and got elected to the Upper House in 2006.

She is among the 11 members from Uttar Pradesh whose term expires on July 4 including Mishra of BSP and Shourie.

The other heavyweights are former Union minister and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, as also industrialist Rahul Bajaj, Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena, Tariq Anwar of NCP and Pyari Mohan Mohapatra of the BJD.

While Antony's tenure ends on April 2 along with two other members from Kerala, the term of Anand Sharma is also ending on the same day.

Sports minister Gill is retiring on April 9 from Punjab as also former union minister Ashwini Kumar and Naresh Gujral of the Akali Dal, who is son of former prime minister IK Gujral.