Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani has been chosen for the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for the year 1999.

The Outstanding Parliamentary Awards for the years 2000, 2001 and 2002 have been given to senior Congress leader Arjun Singh, Finance Minister and the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh and the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Manmohan Singh of Congress respectively, according to a Lok Sabha release.

The awards will be presented to them at a function later this year, it said.

The Indian Parliamentary group, which is headed by the Lok Sabha Speaker, had instituted the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award to be given each year to a sitting Member of Parliament.

The four awardees were chosen at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Parliamentary Group, chaired by Speaker Manohar Joshi, in Delhi on Thursday, it said.

Those who have been conferred this award in the past include Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, veteran CPI leader Indrajit Gupta, CPI-M leader Somnath Chatterjee and Congress leaders Pranab Mukherjee and S Jaipal Reddy.