Parliament to host farewell ceremony for President Pranab Mukherjee today; all MPs to attend

With NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind winning the presidential election on Thursday, the incumbent Pranab Mukherjee’s term in the highest constitutional office of the country comes to an end. On Sunday, members of Parliament will organise a farewell ceremony for the outgoing president in the Central Hall. The programme, which will start at 5.30pm on Friday, will be addressed by the Speaker of Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan, and vice-president and chairman of Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari.

#Farewell to honorable President #PranabMukherjee!Watch LIVE coverage from Central Hall of #Parliament from 5:30 pm onwards today on #DDNews pic.twitter.com/SS63KUC1h1

— DD News (@DDNewslive) July 23, 2017

The programme will last half an hour and will have all members of Parliament, including Narendra Modi, in attendance, India Today reported. Mukherjee will be gifted a memento and a book signed by all MPs. “On 23 July evening, a farewell has been organised for the president. MPs will hand over a coffee table book with their signatures to him,” Sumitra Mahajan had said earlier. The book will also include signatures of Narendra Modi, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha Thambidurai, and deputy chair of Rajya Sabha PJ Kurien. The book, which will contain photographs of President Mukherjee’s visits to Parliament, has close to 695 signatures so far, according to India Today. [caption id=“attachment_3844751” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Pranab Mukherjee with Narendra Modi on Saturday. Twitter@PIB_India[/caption] The speaker’s speech will be embossed on a silk cloth that will be later presented to the president. The cloth will have artwork from the President’s native state of West Bengal printed on it, another India Today said. Earlier, the president attended separate farewell dinners hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chiefs of the armed forces. On Saturday, Modi hosted the ceremony at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, where president-elect Ram Nath Kovind, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, senior ministers and Opposition leaders were also present. The president, who is also Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, was given a farewell by the chiefs of staff committee earlier on Friday. In the function held at Manekshaw Centre, the president interacted with senior military officers and in his farewell address, extended his best wishes to all members of the armed forces and their families. On Monday, Mukherjee will address a farewell speech to the nation at 7.30 pm. Ram Nath Kovind will take oath as the 14th President of India on Tuesday and move into the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Pranab Mukherjee will leave for his new residence at 10, Rajaji Marg, on the same day.