Manmohan Singh’s 30-year-long stint as parliamentarian ends, former PM won’t be seen in Rajya Sabha during Budget session

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh will be missed in the upcoming session of the Parliament for the first time in 30 years. He had been the member of Rajya Sabha three decades. His membership from the Upper House of Parliament ended on June 14. The Budget session of Parliament will begin from June 17 and continue till July 26. Manmohan Singh wont be present in the House for the first time since 1991 when he was elected from Assam. The former prime minister could not make it to the Upper House, as the Congress has poor strength in Assam Assembly. The Congress could not get Manmohan Singh re-elected as the party has just 25 MLAs out of 43 first-preference votes needed in Assam. Even if the party would have managed support from 13 AIUDF MLAs, it would have still fallen short of 5 legislatures. The Congress is even unable to send him from other states from where Upper House seats are vacant. After BJPs Kamakhya Prasad Tasa and AGPs Birender Prasad Baishyas election from Assam, as many as 9 seats are lying vacant – Odisha (4), Tamil Nadu (1), Bihar (2) and Gujarat (2). Even while, the former PM can be sent in the Upper House of Parliament from Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Punjab or Rajasthan, there are no vacancies in these states at the moment. The Congress also has the option to make any leader from the party resign and get the two-time PM elected from that seat. The Congress has however maintained that the option has not been considered by the party so far. Manmohan Singh was Indias prime minister from 2004 to 2009 and then from 2009 to 2014. He has often been credited of opening Indias door for the open market economy during his tenure as finance minister when PV Narsimha Rao was the prime minister