New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) Samajwadi Party's Mohan Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi have been selected as the outstanding parliamentarians for 2008 and 2009 respectively, an official release said Tuesday.

An award committee of the Indian Parliamentary Group, under the chairmanship of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar recommended the names of Mohan Singh and Joshi for the awards for 2008 and 2009 and the executive committee accepted the recommendations, a parliament release said. The Lok Sabha speaker is the president of the Indian Parliamentary Group.

The awards will be presented at a function to be held during the monsoon session of parliament, the release said

Joshi, 76, is a former president of the BJP. First elected to the Lok Sabha in 1977, he is a fifth-term member of the lower house. He represents Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh). He was also a two-time Rajya Sabha MP.

Joshi also served as home minister during the 13 day government of A.B. Vajpayee in 1996. Later, he became human resource development minister in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government during 1998-1999 and 1999-2004.

Mohan Singh, 65, was thrice-elected to the Lok Sabha, including the 14th Lok Sabha (2004-2009).

Singh, who lost the elections in 2009, is currently the general secretary and spokesperson for the Samajwadi Party.

Past winners of the award, instituted in 1995, include Indrajit Gupta, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Chandra Shekar, Somnath Chatterjee, Pranab Mukherjee, S. Jaipal Reddy, L.K. Advani, Arjun Singh, Jaswant Singh, Manomohan Singh, Sharad Pawar, Sushma Swaraj, P. Chidamabaram and Mani Shankar Aiyar.