New Delhi: Senior Biju Janata Dal leader and Rajya Sabha member Dr Sasmit Patra has been conferred with the Best Parliamentarian Award in the Lokmat Parliamentary Awards 2023. Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor was also awarded as the best parliamentarian in the Lokmat Parliamentary Awards 2023 held on Tuesday.
Besides Sasmit Patra and Shashi Tharoor, six other lawmakers from the two Houses also received the awards in various categories for their contributions in Parliament. Lok Sabha MP and Bahujan Samaj Party leader Danish Ali and CPI(M) MP from Rajya Sabha, John Brittas, were picked as the best debutant parliamentarians of the year. Samajwadi Party MP from Rajya Sabha, Ram Gopal Yadav, and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Lok Sabha MP Maneka Sanjay Gandhi were conferred with the lifetime achievement award. Shiromani Akali Dal lawmaker from Lok Sabha, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, and BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Saroj Pandey were awarded the best woman parliamentarian in the respective Houses.
The Lokmat Parliamentary Awards are given to outstanding parliamentarians – four from Lok Sabha and four from Rajya Sabha – every year. This is the fifth edition of the awards, and the recipients of which were selected by a jury headed by Lokmat Parliamentary Awards committee chairman and former secretary general of Lok Sabha, Subhas Kashyap. Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari was the chief guest at the award ceremony that was also attended by Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment Ramdas Athawale.