In a major shuffle of parliamentary standing committees, Congress lost the chairmanship of key panels while other major opposition parties have also not been assigned any chairmanship post on vital committees. All the key parliamentary panels -- External Affairs, Defence, and Finance -- now lie with the ruling BJP after the latest rejig.
In the latest reconstitution of parliamentary panels, notified by secretariats of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, chairpersons of several committees have been changed.
Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi has been replaced by BJP MP and former DGP of Uttar Pradesh Brijlal as the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing committee on Home Affairs.
Besides Home Affairs, Congress was also not given the chairmanship of Information and Technology in the latest reconstitution of parliamentary panels, which happens annually.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is contesting the party's presidential polls, has been replaced by Prataprao Jadhav, a Shiv Sena MP from the Shinde faction, as the head of the Parliamentary Panel on Information Technology.
The Trinamool Congress, which had the chair of the Parliamentary Panel on Food and Consumer Affairs, has not been given the chairmanship of any parliamentary committee after the reshuffle. The panel on food will be chaired by BJP MP from West Bengal Locket Chatterjee.
Similarly, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Samajwadi Party also lost the chairmanship of the panel on Industry and Health respectively, left with no committee to chair.
TRS leader Keshav Rao has been replaced by DMK leader Tiruchi Siva as chairperson of the panel on Industry, while BJP MP Vivek Thakur will head the panel on Health replacing SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav.
BJP's erstwhile ally JD(U) has also been given a committee in the latest restructuring. Its Rajiv Ranjan Singh will now chair the panel on Urban Development.
The chairmanship of two key parliamentary panels -- Commerce and Chemicals Fertilisers -— are yet to be announced and likely to be given to Congress, sources informed news agency PTI.
The number of committees is allocated in accordance with the strength of the party in either house of the parliament.
(With PTI Inputs)