The Trinamool Congress has lost the chairpersonship of two key Parliamentary committees after Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla reconstituted various department-related Parliamentary standing committees on Saturday.
According to a PTI report, BJP's Sudhanshu Trivedi has been appointed chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Commerce, replacing TMC's Dola Sen. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who belongs to the rebel faction of the TMC, has replaced former party colleague Kirti Azad as chairperson of the panel on chemicals and fertilisers.
DMK MPs Tiruchi Siva and K Kanimozhi have been reappointed chairpersons of the Parliamentary committees on industry, and food, consumer affairs and public distribution, respectively.
The leaders of key BJP allies, including the JD-U, Shiv Sena and TDP, have also been retained as heads of various Parliamentary committees.
Several opposition leaders have also retained their posts. Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor and Charanjit Singh Channi will continue as chairpersons of the committees on external affairs and agriculture, respectively.
Congress' Mukul Wasnik has been retained as head of the Parliamentary panel on education, women, children and youth, while Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Verma will continue as chairperson of the committee on health and family welfare.
BJP's Radha Mohan Singh will head the committee on defence.
JD-U's Sanjay Kumar Jha has been reappointed chairperson of the committee on transport, tourism and culture, while Shiv Sena's Shrirang Barne has been retained as head of the committee on energy.
BJP's Sujeet Kumar has replaced party colleague Brij Lal as chairperson of the committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice.
Former Union minister Anurag Thakur has been reappointed head of the committee on coal, mines and steel, while BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy has been retained as chairperson of the committee on water resources.
BJP's Bhartruhari Mahtab will continue to head the committee on finance, while party colleague Radha Mohan Das Agarwal has been retained as chairperson of the committee on home affairs.
BJP's Nishikant Dubey has also been reappointed head of the committee on communications and information technology. Party MP Medha Vishram Kulkarni has been retained as chairperson of the committee on science and technology, environment, forests and climate change.
BJP's Sudheer Gupta has replaced party colleague C M Ramesh as chairperson of the committee on railways, while Congress' Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka has been reappointed head of the committee on rural development and Panchayati Raj.
(With inputs from PTI)
