Search panel formed to pick Lokpal

LEADER OF THE CONGRESS IN THE LOK SABHA MALLIKARJUN KHARGE BOYCOTTED THE MEETING

NEW DELHI: The Lokpal selection committee chaired by PM Narendra Modi on Thursday evening decided to go ahead and constitute a search panel to choose the Lokpal, or the anti-corruption ombudsman, after the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge boycotted the meeting, two people familiar with the development said.

Kharge boycotted the meeting on the grounds that he was being invited as a “special invitee” without any right of participation, recording an opinion or voting.

On Wednesday, he wrote to the Prime Minister that he would not attend the selection committee meeting till the time the leader of the single largest opposition party is accorded the status of a full-fledged member of the panel. The Congress won fewer than 10% of the seats in the Lok Sabha in 2014 and, consequently, its leader in the house isn’t eligible to be the leader of the opposition.

Besides the PM, Thursday’s meeting was attended by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, CJI Dipak Misra and an eminent jurist Mukul Rohatgi.

One of the two people familiar with the matter cited above said on condition of anonymity that the selection committee had decided to go ahead with its work.