New Delhi : The Opposition parties might get chairmanship of six of the 16 department-related standing committees of the Lok Sabha, though these are unlikely to include key ones such as home affairs or defence, in the upcoming reshuffle of the House panels that is expected to be completed before September 20, functionaries involved in the discussions said on Sunday.
Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju has started consultations with different political parties and has indicated to leaders that the panels will be reconstituted before September 20. In the 17th Lok Sabha, the committees were announced on September 14.
The Congress, according to a party leader, wants “qualitative and quantitative improvement” of their quota of chairmanship of panels in line with the party’s improved performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The party’s interlocutors with the government have indicated that when the Congress had just 44 MPs in the 16th Lok Sabha, it headed the finance and external affairs committees of Parliament.
In the outgoing Lok Sabha, the party chaired the panels on chemicals and fertilisers, environment and commerce.
During the discussions with various parties—which included a meeting between Rijiju and some senior leaders on Sunday evening—the government has indicated that it is not inclined towards an Opposition leader as the chairman of the home affairs panel. In the recent past, former Union minister P Chidambaram and Abhishek Singhvi had led the important committee.
Of the 24 department-related standing committees, eight are headed by Rajya Sabha members.
To be sure, the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha chairman pick the chairpersons of the House panels. But before the final decision is taken by the presiding officers, the government holds informal consultations with various parties.
In the upcoming reshuffle, the Trinamool Congress is expected to get one chairman’s post. It didn’t get the chairman’s post in the 17th Lok Sabha. The Trinamool, which is currently facing the wrath of the people of West Bengal over the gruesome rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College, is the third largest party in Parliament after the BJP and the Congress.
The Samajwadi Party, which has been contacted by government managers over the phone, will head one panel and the DMK, another key Opposition party, will lead a committee.
The TDP and the JDU don’t have the requisite numbers to claim the chairman’s post but the BJP will give the two allies the chairmanship of two panels from its own quota.
The standing committees, which hold key to Parliament’s supervisory role on the government, are yet to be reconstituted despite two sessions — a special session and the monsoon session —being concluded in the 18th Lok Sabha. Each standing committee oversees the functioning of one or a few ministries.
