Parliament panels: BJP retains key ministries, allies and opposition gain expanded roles
- In Reports
- 05:52 PM, Sep 27, 2024
- Myind Staff
The government appointed opposition leaders, allies, and senior leaders as chairs of various parliamentary standing committees, as announced on Thursday evening. Out of the 24 departments, the BJP will lead 11, while its allies will chair four. Congress leaders will head four committees, with two each for the DMK and Trinamool Congress, and one for the Samajwadi Party. Standing committees within departments, with representation from both political parties, serve as informal parliaments that monitor the operations of individual ministries.
Standing committees of Parliament were established, with Bhartruhari Mahtab of the BJP leading the important Finance panel and Shashi Tharoor of the Congress leading the External Affairs panel. Former Union minister Radha Mohan Singh will chair the Defence committee, while BJP member Radha Mohan Das Agrawal will chair the Home Affairs committee.
Rahul Gandhi is a member of the Committee on Defence and leads the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The name of Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), is absent from all committees. In addition to its partners in the upcoming Maharashtra elections, the NCP and the Shiv Sena, the BJP will have one committee each led by prominent allies like the TDP and Janata Dal (United).
The committee on petroleum and natural gas will be led by the lone NCP Lok Sabha member Sunil Tatkare, while the committee on energy will be led by Shrirang Appa Barne of the Shiv Sena. Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy of the TDP will lead the committee on housing and urban affairs, while Sanjay Jha of JD(U) will lead the committee on transportation, tourism, and culture.
The committees on agriculture, animal husbandry and food processing; rural development and panchayati raj have appointed Congress members Charanjit Singh Channi and Saptagiri Ulaka as their chairs, respectively. The committees on industry, consumer affairs, food, and public distribution will be chaired by DMK members Tiruchi Siva and Kanimozhi, respectively.
The chairmanships of the committees on coal, mines and steel, and water resources have been granted to former Union Minister Anurag Thakur and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, respectively. Nishikant Dubey, a member of the BJP, has been appointed as the Committee on Communications and Information Technology's chairman. Dubey engaged in a protracted feud with Tharoor, the chair of the Committee and IT panel in the previous Lok Sabha. In 2022, Tharoor lost his position as the pivotal committee's chair.
The leaders of the Trinamool Party, Dola Sen and Kirti Azad, will chair the committees on commerce, chemicals, and fertilisers, respectively, while SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav will chair the committee on health.
The former Uttar Pradesh director general of police and member of the BJP, Brij Lal, will preside over the Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law, and Justice. Members of the committee include Manan Mishra, Chairman of the Bar Council of India, and Ranjan Gogoi, a former Chief Justice of India.
The chairs of the committees on science and technology, labour, and the environment, forests, and climate change will be BJP members Bhubaneswar Kalita and Basavraj Bommai, respectively. P C Mohan of the BJP will chair the Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment, and C M Ramesh will chair the Committee on Railways.
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