Five ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and six Congress lawmakers are among 19 members of Rajya Sabha to retire in April. With this, the retirements will bring down the Congress’ tally in the Upper House down to 28 from 34 and that of the BJP’s from 97 to 92.

BJP is the single largest party in the 245-member House that presently has 237 members.

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On Monday, Congress lawmaker Anand Sharma twice dropped hints in his speech during the discussion on the motion of thanks to the President’s address that this could be his last intervention in the Upper House.

Sharma’s term as a Rajya Sabha member is due to end on April 2.

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The terms of his party colleagues, former defence minister AK Antony (Kerala), Partap Singh Bajwa, Shamsher Singh Dullo (Punjab), Ripun Bora, and Ranee Narah (Assam) are also due to end.

The BJP’s numbers will also go down in the Upper House with the retirement of nominated members who have chosen to align with the party.

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The list includes Subramaniam Swamy, who has often embarrassed the government with his stance on issues of national security and economy, actor Suresh Gopi, actor-turned-politician Roopa Ganguly, and journalist Swapan Dasgupta.

Boxer Mary Kom and economist Narendra Jadhav are the other nominated members due to retire. The term of BJP’s Shwait Malik (Punjab) is also ending.

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KG Kenye, the lone member from Nagaland of the Naga People’s Front will also retire.

In the aftermath of the killing of 14 civilians in Nagaland during a botched counter-insurgency operation by the army in December, Kenye criticised the Centre for failing to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from the state.

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Loktantrik Janta Dal’s MV Shreyams Kumar (Kerala), Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Naresh Gujral of Shiromani Akali Dal from Punjab, Communist Party of India’s K Soma Prasad (Kerala), and Jharna Das Baidya (Tripura) will also retire in April. There will be five vacancies in Rajya Sabha from Punjab, which goes to the polls this month.