Parliament’s department-related standing committees, comprising Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs, have been reconstituted for the current year. As part of the reshuffle, DMK MPs Kanimozhi and Tiruchi Siva have once again been appointed as chairpersons.
Standing committees are reconstituted annually and are tasked with scrutinising the functioning of ministries beyond the executive, including reviewing budgets, policies and legislation through the year. Chairperson posts are typically allotted based on parties’ strength in Parliament and are seen as politically significant one-year assignments.
The reconstitution orders were issued by Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The Trinamool Congress, led by former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, lost chairpersonships of two important standing committees in the latest allocation.
Among other key appointments, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has been reappointed as chair of the External Affairs committee, while Congress MP Charanjit Singh Channi has again been named chair of the Agriculture committee. The Commerce committee chair has moved from TMC MP Dola Sen to BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi, and the Chemicals and Fertilisers committee chair has been reassigned from TMC MP Kirti Azad to Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.
