Parliamentary colleagues of 72 retiring MPs of the Rajya Sabha have decided to bid farewell to them by presenting a cultural-cum-musical show over a dinner hosted by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday.

MPs  like Dr Santanu Sen will play guitar, Dola Sen will present Rabindra Sangeet, Tiruchi Siva will render a Tamil song and Roopa Ganguly a Hindi song. Other members who have expressed their interest to participate in the show are Ramachandra Jhangra, who will sing a patriotic song and Vandana Chavan, who will present a Hindi song.

The individual performances will be followed by a chorus song for which preparations were being done by the MPs in coordination with the Parliament officials. The members are to retire from the month of March till July-end during which their tenure comes to an end. Elections for 13 Rajya Sabha seats across six states will be held on Thursday, March 31.  A Rajya Sabha secretariat official mentioned that such a large scale extravaganza for retiring members of the upper house will happen almost after 20 years. Such an event for retiring members happened during the tenure of Deputy Chairman Najma Heptullah, who took the initiative to discover the talent of MPs, added the official.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a few cabinet colleagues are scheduled to be present on the occasion. Leader of the House, Leader of the Opposition, leaders of various parties and several of the retiring members will speak in the Upper House during the day followed by the ‘memorable’ event for them in the evening, officials said.

Naidu announced in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that Zero Hour and Question Hour will not be taken up in the House so as to enable the leaders and Members speak on the occasion. “The Chairman will host a dinner on Thursday for all the members of Rajya Sabha on the occasion at his official residence. Mementos will be presented to all the 72 retiring members and another 19 retired earlier who could not receive the mementos,” said officials of the Parliament secretariat.