Rahul gets Defence, Kangana in Communications panel of Parliament
The Parliament on Thursday reshuffled its standing committees with setting up 24 key panels. Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, has been named a member of the Defence Affairs Committee, led by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Radha Mohan Singh. Meanwhile, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey was appointed chair of the Communications and IT Committee. Notably, Mandi MP Kangana Ranaut received her first parliamentary role as a member of Dubey's committee.
Congress chairs 4 committees, BJP leads key ones
The Congress has been entrusted with the leadership of four committees. These include External Affairs, led by former Foreign Minister Shashi Tharoor; Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports under Digvijaya Singh; Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing chaired by ex-Punjab CM Charanjit Channi; and Rural and Panchayati Raj by Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka. The BJP will chair committees Defence, Finance, Home Affairs (led by Radha Mohan Das Agrawal), Coal Mines and Steel (Anurag Thakur), Water Resources (Rajiv Pratap Rudy), among others.
Opposition parties and allies also chair committees
Among other opposition parties, Samajwadi Party's Jaya Bachchan and Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi have joined the Comms and IT committee alongside Ranaut. Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra is also a member of this committee. The DMK's Tiruchi Siva will chair Industry while Kanimozhi will lead Food and Public Distribution. BJP allies from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), who contributed 53 seats in the general election, have been given leadership of one committee each.
BJP's state allies in Maharashtra named for committees
Ahead of the election in Maharashtra, leaders from the BJP's state allies have also been named. The Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) group under Deputy CM Ajit Pawar will helm committees on Energy and Petroleum and Natural Gas panel respectively. Each department-related standing committee acts as "mini parliaments," keeping a tab on their related ministries' functioning with members from both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.
