Sonia reconstitutes Cong’s parliamentary hierarchy
In a major rejig ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament that is scheduled to begin on Monday, the Congress has reconstituted and expanded its parliamentary groups in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, bringing in senior faces such as former Union ministers P Chidambaram, Manish Tewari and Ambika Soni, and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh.
The announcement came on Sunday by way of a letter by party president Sonia Gandhi. In that she wrote that the reshuffle has been done for the effective functioning of the party in both houses of Parliament. “These groups will meet daily during the session and can meet during the inter-session periods as well where Parliament issues are concerned,” the Congress president wrote.
The letter has also ended speculation about the role of
West Bengal MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who, it was thought, will be replaced by either Shashi Tharoor or Manish Tewari. The letter states that Chowdhury will continue as the leader of the party in the Lok Sabha, but Tharoor and Tewari will be in the group too, which only underlines that Sonia Gandhi wants more heads in the party’s parliamentary decisionmaking process.
The Lok Sabha group will also have Assam MP Gaurav Gogoi (deputy leader), K Suresh (chief whip), Ravneet Singh Bittu and Manickam Tagore (both whips).
The Rajya Sabha hierarchy, which earlier had Mallikarjun Kharge as the leader of the opposition, Anand Sharma (deputy leader) and Jairam Ramesh (chief whip), will now include Chidambaram, Soni and Singh.