BJP offers chairpersonship of Par Committees to seniors

Plagued by disgruntled senior leaders going public with their grievances after the Lok Sabha debacle, BJP on Wednesday sought to placate them with offers of chairpersonship of Parliamentary Committees.

Plagued by disgruntled senior leaders going public with their grievances after the Lok Sabha debacle, BJP on Wednesday sought to placate them with offers of chairpersonship of Parliamentary Committees.

HT Image

"BJP on Wednesday filed nomination forms of three MPs -- Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Gopinath Munde -- for membership of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. The UPA government has offered the chairpersonship of this committee to BJP," Deputy Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told reporters.

Though election of the chairperson of PAC is scheduled for August 6, as per convention no polling is likely to be held and BJP will choose one of its three MPs for the post.

"The BJP has a quota of three Lok Sabha and two Rajya Sabha MPs in PAC in accordance with its strength. Chairperson of PAC is always from the Lower House," Swaraj said.

BJP sources said Jaswant Singh is likely to become chairperson of PAC. Singh, who was Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha before being elected to Lok Sabha from Darjeeling, is keen on holding this post, party sources said.

In offering this post to Singh, BJP is giving a go-by to another convention. The PAC is usually headed by Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. V K Malhotra headed PAC in the 14th Lok Sabha but his successor Swaraj will have to contend with chairpersonship of the Standing Committee on External Affairs.