Sunday, February 12 2006 12:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Several Union Ministers, including Arjun Singh and H R Bhardwaj, Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha K Rahman Khan and thespian Dilip Kumar are among the 56 members who would soon be retiring from the Upper House.

NCP leader and Union Minister Praful Patel and Union Minister Dasari Narayana Rao and senior BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Janeswar Misra of Samajwadi Party are also among those whose term expires in the first week of April.

Left leaders retiring include Nilotpal Basu and Dipankar Mukherjee of CPI(M) in West Bengal.

The largest contingent of 10 is retiring from Uttar Pradesh, followed by six each from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra, five from Madhya Pradesh and four each from West Bengal and Gujarat.

Those retiring from UP include Kalraj Mishra, Balbir Punj of the BJP, Rajiv Shukla (Cong) and Sakshi Maharaj (SP).

Arjun Singh and Bhardwaj are members from Madhya Pradeshfrom where Congress has strength to elect only one member.

Singh could be fielded from MP while Bhardwaj is likely to be shifted to Haryana, his home state where Congress has got a huge majority.

Sushilkumar Shinde, who was inducted into the Union Cabinet as Power Minister last month, is sure to find a Rajya Sabha berth from Maharashtra where the party has two seats.

Those retiring from the state include Dilip Kumar (Cong), R S Gavai (RPI), Bal Apte (BJP), Vasant Chavan (NCP) and Ram Jethmalani who was supported by Shiv Sena. (

In Karnataka where JD(S)-BJP have captured power, Congress can now have only one member elected instead of three retiring. Besides Rehman Khan, they are Bimba Raikar and K B Krishna Murthy.

Sushma Swaraj is the lone member retiring from Uttaranchal and this time the seat is going to ruling Congress amid reports that Congress spokesman Rajeev Shukla was attempting to shift there from UP where the party has no strength to send even a single member.

Prominent members whose term is ending in Bihar which now has a JD(U)-BJP government, are former Union Minister Ravi Shanker Prasad of BJP and Faguni Ram of Congress.

In Gujarat, retiring members include Arun Jaitley and A K Patel of BJP and Raju Parmar of Congress while in Jharkhand S S Ahluwalia of BJP and R K Anand of Congress are retiring.

Besides Union Minister Dasari Narayana Rao and Congress leader Raashid Alvi, others whose term is ending in Andhra Pradesh include Vanga Geetha and Alladi P Rajkumar, both TDP.