THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is set to become the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers. Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi proposed the name of Tharoor for the post. Curiously the party leadership has proposed Tharoor as chairman of a Parliamentary panel at a time when the diplomat-turned-politician is set to take on Sonia Gandhi’s confidante Mallikarjun Kharge in the party presidential election.
Sources said that when the panel post fell vacant, Sonia had checked with party senior leaders including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, on whether Tharoor would be willing to take up the same. The leaders in turn consulted Tharoor and confirmed that he had no qualms in this regard. Tharoor was recently removed by the Union Government as chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT.
The chairmanship of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers is among the very few panels allotted to the Congress party. Senior leader Jairam Ramesh will continue as chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology. Another senior leader Abhishek Singhvi will continue as the chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Commerce.
Will follow party principles: Kharge
PATNA: Congress presidential poll candidate Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday asserted that the party’s ‘big’ leaders and delegates fielded him in the elections and said that he would carry forward the party’s principles if elected to the post. Kharge reached the state capital to seek the support of Congress delegates and later told newspersons at the state party headquarters, Sadaqat Ashram, that the agenda fixed by Congress leaders in Udaipur this year would be his election manifesto. He said that it was decided to give 50 per cent seats to youths. “I will implement the decisions taken at the Udaipur convention,” he added. ENS