NEW DELHI: Going against convention, the BJP has puts its party MPs in charge of most parliamentary panels that scrutinise key ministries, with only the chairmanship of the standing committee on home given to Anand Sharma, deputy leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha. The panels on finance and external affairs will now be chaired by BJP MPs Jayant Sinha and P P Choudhary, respectively. In the previous Lok Sabha, Veerappa Moily and Shashi Tharoor of the Congress used to head them.
While Moily lost in the 2019 elections, Tharoor has now been made the head of the standing committee on information technology. “Govt has decided to end the tradition of the leading Opposition party chairing the external affairs committee. Apparently a BJP MP will now hold the BJP Govt accountable instead,” Tharoor tweeted.
Lawmakers from the BJP would be heading 13 of the 24 parliamentary panels, while Congress has bagged the chairmanship of three standing committees, down from four earlier. BJP national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Bhupender Yadav, SP leader in Rajya Sabha Ram Gopal Yadav, TRS leader Keshava Rao, YSRCP leader Vijayasai Reddy and Kanimozhi, DMK MP and daughter of former Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi, will head some of the other panels.
Manmohan stays away
Former PM Manmohan Singh has stayed away from any panel. Ex-Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who was in the external affairs panel, is now in defence