PARLIAMENT DIARY
MAMATA’S PROPOSAL ON RS NOMINATION IGNORED BY CONGRESS, LEFT UNITY
As per a previous understanding between West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee and CPI (M) state committee, former mayor of Kolkata and a senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya became the nominee of both parties for one sure seat of Rajya Sabha from West Bengal. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee was not happy with Mr Bhattacharya’s nomination because as an advocate he filed all the chit fund cases in the Supreme Court and the court finally ordered for CBI enquiry into the scam. This time, there are five vacancies in West Bengal. Trinamul Congress will easily win four seats out of their strength in the Assembly. And the fifth seat will go to common nominee of Congress and CPI(M). At the last moment, TMC backed an independent candidate for the fifth seat to scuttle the prospects of Mr Bhattacharya. Not only that, Mamata, after a long time telephoned one close aide of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to get the support from Congress. She even proposed the name of former Speaker Meera Kumar for the fifth seat. Accordingly, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel was asked to consult with the state party leaders. They told bluntly that already Mr Bhattacharya has filed his nomination paper as common candidate of both the parties. Therefore change of candidature is not possible. Friday was the last date for filing nominations for the election of RS seats.
PAC PLANS GRAND CENTENARY CELEBRATION
The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament was conceived in 1921 in the wake of Montagu-Chemsford reforms for forming self governance institutions gradually. The present PAC, headed by Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, in its last meeting declared that it will celebrate the centenary in grand style. Perhaps this will be the first instance a parliamentary committee will celebrate its formation. According to Mr Chowdhury, all the past chairmen of the PAC and chairmen of state PACs will be invited to the celebrations. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, President Ram Nath Kovind, presiding officers of both the houses and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited for the inauguration. In the wake of outbreak of coronavirus, the celebration is now planned during the monsoon session.
NO ROSOGULLA ON BREAKFAST TABLE
President Ram Nath Kovind has started the ritual to meet members of Parliament of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. He is inviting groups of MPs state wise for a breakfast meeting. On Friday, he invited MPs from Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal. Generally, snacks are served in the breakfast. Many MPs were very happy to have food of their respective states. Other than the usual menu of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, a stuffed puri with green peas, a delicacy of Bengal, was also served. But some of them were not very satisfied as their special delicacy Rosogullas were not served. It was speculated that since there was a battle between West Bengal and Odisha on the GI tag over Rosogulla, the President did not want another controversy on the breakfast table.