Congress eyes chairmanship of three key Parl panels

Animesh Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 18

With the Opposition increasing its tally in the 18th Lok Sabha, the Congress is keen to get chairmanship of at least three key Parliamentary panels of finance, home and defence, even as the process of formulation of committees is underway.

Though the BJP has already taken the chairmanship of four of the five committees which have been formulated till now, with the Congress getting the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), sources said the main Opposition party is now seeking the headship of aforementioned committees.

Sources aware of the development, however, added that the government is not keen on giving the chairmanship of the committee on finance to the Congress. As a backup, the Congress is seeking headship of home and defence panels, said sources.

As per convention, the chairmanship of the Standing Committee of Finance goes to the main Opposition party. In 2014, the BJP-led government gave the chairmanship of the finance panel to senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily and did not follow the convention in 2019 and gave4 the chairmanship of the key panel to its own Hazaribagh MP Jayant Sinha.

This time, with the BJP falling short of the 272 majority mark and managing to win only 240 seats on its own and the Congress-led INDIA bloc bagging 237 seats, the political dynamics within Parliament have changed significantly, which reflects the Opposition’s renewed confidence in seeking crucial Parliamentary panels. Five Parliamentary panels have already constituted, of which the PAC is to be headed by Congress MP KC Venugopal. Interestingly, none of the panels have yet been given to NDA allies.