Cong loses chairmanship of parliamentary committee on IT, Home; key panels with BJP

New Delhi: With Congress losing the chairmanship of the parliamentary committee on Home Affairs in the latest rejig announced on Tuesday, all key parliamentary panels — External Affairs, Defence, and Finance — lie with the ruling BJP.

Besides Home Affairs, Congress was also not given the chairmanship of Information and Technology in the latest reconstitution of parliamentary panels, which happens annually

The chairmanship of two key parliamentary panels — Commerce and Chemicals Fertilisers -— are yet to be announced and likely to be given to Congress, sources said.

The number of committees are allocated in accordance with the strength of the party in either house of the parliament.

In the latest reconstitution of parliamentary panels, notified by secretariats of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, chairpersons of several committees have been changed

Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi has been replaced by BJP MP and former DGP of Uttar Pradesh Brijlal as the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing committee on Home Affairs.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is contesting the party’s presidential polls, has been replaced by Prataprao Jadhav, a Shiv Sena MP from the Shinde faction, as the head of the Parliamentary Panel on Information Technology.

Tharoor’s committee was in news throughout the year for taking up several subjects which were critical of the government.

The Trinamool Congress, which had the chair of the Parliamentary Panel on Food and Consumer Affairs, has not been given the chairmanship of any parliamentary committee after the reshuffle.

The panel on food will be chaired by BJP MP from West Bengal Locket Chatterjee.

“TMC is the third largest party in Parliament, also the second largest opposition party does not get a single chairmanship. The largest opposition party loses two crucial chairmanships of Standing committees. This is the stark reality of New India,” TMC leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien said in a statement.

Similarly Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Samajwadi Party also lost the chairmanship of panel on Industry and Health respectively, left with no committee to chair.

TRS leader Keshav Rao has been replaced by DMK leader Tiruchi Siva as chairperson of panel on Industry, while BJP MP Vivek Thakur will head the panel on Health replacing SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav.

BJP’s erstwhile ally JD(U) has also been given a committee in the latest restructuring. Its Rajiv Ranjan Singh will now chair the panel on Urban Development.