Parliamentary committees face leadership changes as TMC set to lose two posts

Parliamentary committees are set to see a reshuffle of chairpersons, with six out of the 24 committees facing changes. The Trinamool Congress is set to lose two chairperson berths because a group of their MPs switched camps after the West Bengal elections.

Committee Changes

The Parliamentary committee on Commerce, headed by TMC Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen, will go to BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi. The committee on Chemicals, previously headed by TMC MP Kriti Azad, is likely to be headed by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. Dastidar led the TMC rebel faction and claimed to have merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, a Tripura-based outfit. A decision on this breakaway group's fate is pending before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

Other Party Changes

Congress Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh is being replaced by party colleague Mukul Wasnik to head the committee on education. The BJP has reshuffled three of its committee chairpersons. Party MP Brij Lal is being replaced by colleague Sujeet Kumar to head the committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, as Lal's term in the Upper House is set to end in November. The BJP also replaced Lok Sabha MP Basavaraj Bommai with Shashank Mani to head the Labour, Textiles and Skill Development Committee, and appointed BJP MP Sudhir Gupta instead of C M Ramesh to head the committee on Railways.

Context

Parliament has a total of 24 department-related committees with members from both Houses of Parliament. Eight of these committees come under the Rajya Sabha chairman, while the other 16 are under the Lok Sabha Speaker.