Parliament’s Standing Committees Ready: Rahul Remains in Defence, Congress to Head 4 Panels, TMC 2 – News18

Parliament’s standing committees were constituted on Thursday with Lok Sabha’s leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi remaining a member of the defence panel.

As reported first on CNN-News18, the Congress, which is the leading opposition party, gets the chairmanship of four committees. This includes external affairs, a ministry once led by Congress’s Dr Shashi Tharoor, who will now head the related panel.

Congress MPs Charanjit Singh Channi and Saptagiri Ulaka have been made chairpersons of the committees on agriculture, animal husbandry and food processing, and rural development and panchayati raj, respectively.

For the Trinamool Congress, which had been dragging its feet over the Centre’s offers, its Lok Sabha MP Kirti Azad will head the standing committee on chemicals and fertilisers while Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen will lead the commerce panel.

As also reported by CNN-News18, the Bharatiya Janata Party has accommodated its allies too. From the Janata Dal (United), Dr Sanjay Jha is now the committee chairman for tourism, transport, and culture. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) gets the chairmanship of the committee on housing and urban affairs for Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy. Shrirang Barne from the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde is the chairman of the committee on energy.

The BJP, which is leading the ruling National Democratic Alliance, has kept the chairmanships of the most important committees with itself. Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal is now the committee chairman for home affairs, replacing Brij Lal. Senior member of Parliament from Lok Sabha Nishikant Dubey will head the IT committee. Radha Mohan Singh, another senior member of Parliament and former union minister, will now lead the committee for defence. Former union minister Anurag Singh Thakur is the chairman of the committee for coal and mines. Another senior member of Parliament, Bhartruhari Mahtab, is the chairman of the crucial committee for finance.

Former union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy has been made the committee head for water resources. Former Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has been given the chairmanship of the committee of labour and textiles.

Controversial member of Parliament from Mandi Kangana Ranaut will be a member of the IT committee. Actress and politician Jaya Bachchan from the Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi are also part of this panel.

Interestingly, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, who had a huge face-off with BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, continues to be on the IT committee led by him.

Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, who was earlier in the external office committee, will be a member of the committee of law and justice, being a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha.

Government sources said that it was declared several times, including by parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju, that there would be no delay in forming the standing committees, and the process has been completed within the deadline before the end of September.