(Bhartruhari Mahtab) 

Bhartruhari Mahtab a member of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) political party received the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for the year 2017.

Bhartruhari Mahtab was born on 8th September 1957 in Agarpara, Odisha, India. Bhartruhari Mahtab represents Cuttack constituency in Odisha in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Indian bicameral parliament). Bhartruhari Mahtab is a Member of Parliament (MP) from Cuttack constituency in Odisha from the 12th Lok Sabha. He assumed office as a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1998. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999 (13th Lok Sabha), 2004 (14th Lok Sabha), 2009 (15th Lok Sabha) and in 2014 (16th Lok Sabha). Every time he was elected from the Cuttack constituency in Odisha. Apart from receiving the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 2017, Mr Mahtab also won the Sansad Ratna Award in 2017 and in 2018 for his performance in ‘Debates’.

Outstanding Parliamentarian Award is given to the outstanding sitting Member of the Indian Parliament for overall contribution in the Indian Parliament. The award is given by the Indian Parliamentary Group. The award was instituted by Shivraj Patil (Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1991 to 1996) in the year 1992. Indrajit Gupta was the first recipient of the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 1992.

The Parliament of India or commonly known as Parliament (Sansad in Hindi) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. The Parliament of India is of a bicameral legislature with two houses. The two houses are The Rajya Sabha (the upper house of parliament or the Council of States) and The Lok Sabha (the lower house of parliament or the House of the People). The Parliament of India was founded on 26th January 1950 succeeding the Constituent Assembly of India. The structure of the Parliament of India consists of 790 seats with 245 seats in the Rajya Sabha and 545 seats in the Lok Sabha.