Channi reappointed chairman of Parliamentary panel on agriculture, Tharoor stays external affairs committee chief
Raghav Chadha named member of parliamentary panel on external committee
Key opposition leaders, including Congress MP from Jalandhar Charanjit Singh Channi, have been reappointed as chairpersons of important parliamentary committees.
Rajya Sabha chairman CP Radhakrishnan today reconstituted the House-related parliamentary standing committees, naming former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi as chairman of the panel on agriculture.
Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, who has often been at variance with the party stand on key policy issues including Operation Sindoor, remains the head of the crucial parliamentary committee on external affairs.
Mukul Wasnik of the Congress will keep heading the committee on women and children and education.
Key dropouts among chairpersons are Dola Sen of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC as chairman of the commerce panel, Brij Lal as head of Personnel, Public Grievances, Law & Justice and CM Ramesh as chair of railways.
Dola Sen has been replaced by BJP's Sudhanshu Trivedi.
Notably, TMC rebel leader Kakoli Ghosh has been named chairperson of the panel on chemicals and fertilisers in place of TMC's Kirti Azad.
DMK gets to head two panels with Tiruchi Siva and K Kanimozhi as chairpersons.
NDA allies have been retained as chairpersons of important panels.
These include Shiv Sena's Shriram Barne (chair of energy panel) and Sanjay Jha of JDU (transport and tourism).
There are eight department-related standing committees in Rajya Sabha.
Defence panel will continue to be headed by BJP's Radha Mohan Singh; home panel by BJP's Radha Mohan Das Agarwal; IT and communications by BJP's Nishikant Dubey; Coal and mines by BJP's Anurag Thakur; and BJP's Rajeev Pratap Rudy water resources.
Finance panel head will be the incumbent veteran, MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, and Sujeet Kumar of the BJP will chair personnel panel in place of Brij Lal, who has retired.
Among members, AAP BJP Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha has been named a member of external affairs committee and Swati Maliwal of education.
