Manmohan is member of Moily-led committee on finance, Rahul Gandhi in external affairs
Coming along expected lines, the BJP and its allies have got Chairmanship of 16 Parliamentary Standing Committees with Congress MPs being made heads of five panels. BSP, Trinamool and BJD parliamentarians will head a panel each. Of the 24 panels, Chairmanship of eight panels has been allotted to Rajya Sabha members while the 16 others will be headed by their lok Sabha counterparts. BJP MPs will head almost a dozen panels.
BJP MPs Major BC Khanduri, JP Nadda, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Anurag Thakur, Hansraj Ahir, Ramesh Bais and Chandan Mitra will now head committees on Defence, Education, Energy, Information Technology, Coal, Social Justice and Commerce respectively. Those Congress leaders who got important departmental panels include Veerappa Moily (Finance), Shashi Tharoor (External Affairs) and Pradeep Bhattacharya (Home).
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a member of the Moily-headed Committee. Moily was a Minister in the Manmohan Singh Government. Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia, BJP’s Jayant Sinha, the Harvard-educated investor and son of former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, SS Ahluwalia and Kirit Somaiah are among its members.
Former law Minister Ashwani Kumar was allotted Science and Technology and Sudarshan Natchiappan the law and Personnel panel. Rahul Gandhi is a member of the Committee on External Affairs but Congress president Sonia Gandhi does not figure in any of the panels announced. In the last lok Sabha, Gandhi had been a member of the Committee on HRD and Sports.
Interestingly, BJP veteran lK Advani is a member of the Committee on Information and Technology headed by Anurag Thakur. He is also a member of the Committee on Public Undertakings headed by senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar. Another BJP veteran, Murli Manohar Joshi, has already been appointed as chairman of Estimates Committee of Parliament. The Public Accounts Committee, which Joshi headed during UPA’s tenure, is now helmed by Congress leader KV Thomas.
The BJP’s pick for chairman of the panel on Water Resource Ministry is Hukum Singh from Uttar Pradesh as much of the Ministry’s work will relate to the cleaning of Ganga. While the SP did not get a single chairman’s post, its arch-rival BSP’s Satish Mishra will lead the health committee. TDP, Shivsena and BJD have also been given chairman’s slots.
Each committee comprises 31 people - 21 from the lower House and 10 from the Upper House. BJP’s Hukum Deo Narayan Yadav is the head of the Committee on Agriculture while BJP MP from Madhya Pradesh, Virendra Kumar, heads the labour panel.
TMC’s Dinesh Trivedi will chair the committee on Railways, while Pinaki Misra (BJD) will head the Committee on Urban Development. Non-NDA parties which have got chairmanship include Trinamool Congress member KD Singh (Transport) former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi -- also Trinamool -- (Railways), AIADMK’s P Venugopal (Rural Development) and KC Tyagi of JD(U) (Commerce and Industry).
BJP ally Shiv Sena’s Anandrao Adsul has got the chairmanship of Chemicals and Fertilisers, while TDP’s J C Divakar Reddy will head panel on Food and Consumer Affairs.