BJP MPS to head key Parliamentary panels

Anand Sharma only Cong MP to chair panel

NEW DELHI: In a departure from tradition, the Bharatiya

Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday kept all the vital Parliamentary committees with them, while only one prestigious panel has gone to Congress.

As per the official communiqué, the department related parliamentary committees on Finance, External Affairs and Defence will now be headed by BJP MPS, while Congress Rajya Sabha member Anand Sharma will be the only Congress MP leading a committee.

As per the Lok Sabha secretariat, BJP MP and former Union Minister Jayant Sinha has been appointed as the chairperson of the committee on Finance, former Tribal Minister Jual Oram will head the Defence panel, and former union minister PP Choudhary will chair the committee on External Affairs.

Notably, in the 16th Lok Sabha, the panels on Finance, External Affairs were headed by Congress MPS Veerappa Moily and Shashi Tharoor, respectively.

As per the new arrangement, Tharoor will now head the Standing Committee on Information Technology, while Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been moved from the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs to the Defence panel.

Members from opposition parties will head the committees on Science and Technology and Environment, Health, Information Technology, Food and Consumer Affairs, Labour and Chemicals & Fertilizers.

Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Bhupender Yadav will head the committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, BJP’S Rakesh Singh will chair the committee on Coal and Steel and Ramesh Bidhuri the panel on Petroleum &Natural Gas.

V Vijayasai Reddy of the YSRCP will chair the panel on Commerce, BJD’S Bhartruhari Mehtab will head the committee on Labour, JD(U) MP Rajiv Ranjan will chair the Energy panel, Shiv Sena MP Prataprao Jadhav will head the committee on rural development.

Former agriculture minister and BJP MP Radha Mohan Singh will head the Parliamentary panel on Railways, while PC Gaddigoudar will chair the agriculture panel. TMC’S Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay has been appointed as chairperson of the standing committee on Food Consumer Affairs and PDS, while the committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, which was headed by TMC’S Derek O’brien, has gone to Rajya Sabha member TG Venkatesh, who recently crossed over to the BJP.