New Delhi: Manmohan Singh’s tenure as Rajya Sabha MP is set to end in April this year. The 91-year-old former prime minister is likely to retire from public life owing to his frail health, the Hindustan Times reports citing sources.“He is mentally well, but finds it difficult to move…his return to the Rajya Sabha is out of the question,” the newspaper quoted a close aide of Singh’s as saying.A person familiar with the matter also said that Singh told his Congress party he wished to quit his Rajya Sabha membership around a year ago.“Singh felt that there was no point continuing if he wasn’t able to discharge his duties fully,” the person was quoted as saying.In his last few appearances in parliament, Singh was seen using a wheelchair for mobility. According to his profile on the Rajya Sabha’s website, he last attended parliament on December 5 last year.Singh’s latest stint in the Rajya Sabha began as an MP for Rajasthan in August 2019.Although Rajya Sabha legislators have a term of six years, Singh’s tenure ends in April this year as he is serving the remainder of a term started by BJP MP Madan Lal Saini, who was elected to the seat in March 2018 but died in June 2019.He was first elected to the Rajya Sabha as an Assam MP in 1991. He continued to represent the state till June 2019.As prime minister between 2004 and 2014, Singh presided over landmark legislation such as the Right to Information Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act as well as over a fast-growing economy.The infamous 2G spectrum and Commonwealth Games scams, which played a major role in the fall of the Congress-led Union government, also took place on his watch.Some parliamentarians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recognised Singh’s work while giving a farewell to retiring Rajya Sabha members during the ongoing budget session of parliament.“When some select parliamentarians will be discussed when our democracy is talked about, the respected Dr Manmohan Singh’s contributions will surely figure,” Modi said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday (February 8).Modi also spoke of a time when Singh appeared in a wheelchair to cast his vote on an issue even when “it was clear the treasury benches would win”.“It isn’t a question of who he came to strengthen. I take it he came to strengthen democracy,” Modi said.Leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, thanked Modi for “complimenting” the good work Singh had done.Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Deve Gowda said Singh was “honest to the core” and claimed he was defamed for wrongdoing by others, The Telegraph reported.According to the Hindustan Times‘s report, Singh wrote a letter to the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha saying he was unable to attend a dinner for retiring members.Before he was prime minister, Singh was also leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the Union finance minister, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and the governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He also worked in the United Nations Secretariat.He oversaw the liberalisation of India’s economy as finance minister in the early 1990s.Although Singh has been described as an “accidental prime minister”, Karan Thapar had interviewed him in 1999 for the BBC, terming him then as the “most likely candidate to be prime minister”.