E-Paper
TMC could chair 2 department-related standing committees in Lok Sabha
The Trinamool Congress could get the chairmanship of two department-related standing committees in the 18th Lok Sabha, unlike the previous Lok Sabha when it did not have any.
The Trinamool Congress could get the chairmanship of two department-related standing committees in the 18th Lok Sabha, unlike the previous Lok Sabha when it did not have any, people aware of the matter have said.
According to officials involved in discussions with political parties, the Trinamool Congress, which has 29 seats in Lok Sabha and 12 in the Upper House, might head the commerce & industries and the chemical & fertilizers committees. In the 17th Lok Sabha, both panels were led by the Congress.
Since the Congress’s strength in Rajya Sabha has shrunk to just 27 MPs, the principal Opposition party will chair only the education panel, these people added. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh will head that panel. The Congress had more than 60 Rajya Sabha members when the committees were drawn up at the outset of the 17th Lok Sabha.
Opposition parties might get chairmanship of six of the 16 department-related standing committees of the Lok Sabha and head three of the eight panels of the Rajya Sabha. Shashi Tharoor, who earlier headed the chemicals panel, will head the external affairs committee.
Government functionaries have previously indicated that the panels will be notified in the next few days.
In the 17th Lok Sabha, Trinamool Congress was not given any chairmanship. BJP leaders had informally pointed out that in TMC-ruled West Bengal, no BJP leader had been allowed to head a standing committee of the assembly.
According to the people cited above, parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju held consultations with different political parties and has indicated to leaders that the panels will be reconstituted before September 20. In the 17th Lok Sabha, the committees were announced on September 14.
The Congress, according to a party leader, demanded “qualitative and quantitative improvement” of their quota of chairmanship of panels in line with the party’s improved performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The party’s interlocutors with the government have indicated that when the Congress had just 44 MPs in the 16th Lok Sabha, it headed the finance and external affairs committees of Parliament.
Apart from the education and external affairs panels, the Congress will chair agriculture and rural development committees. Former Punjab CM and Ludhiana MP Charanjit Singh Channi will head the agriculture panel and Koraput MP Saptagiri Ulaka will lead the rural development committee.
