The Trinamool Congress has lost the chairpersonship of two key parliamentary panels as Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Saturday reconstituted various department-related parliamentary standing committees.
While BJP's Sudhanshu Trivedi has been appointed the new chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Commerce, replacing TMC's Dola Sen, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, leader of TMC's rebel faction, has replaced her former party colleague Kirti Azad as the chairperson of the Parliamentary panel on Chemicals and Fertilisers.
This has happened after a split in the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, with 20 of its rebel Lok Sabha MPs, led by Dastidar, quitting the party and joining the Nationalist Citizen Party while also supporting the NDA.
The department-related parliamentary standing committees serve a one-year term, after which they are reconstituted.
DMK, BJP allies retain committee posts
DMK MPs Tiruchi Siva and K Kanimozhi have been reappointed chairpersons of the Parliamentary committee on industry, and the panel on food, consumer affairs and public distribution, respectively.
The leaders of some key BJP allies -- JD(U), Shiv Sena and the TDP -- have also been retained as heads of different Parliamentary committees.
Some opposition leaders, including Shashi Tharoor and Charanjit Singh Channi of the Congress, have also been retained as chairpersons of committees on external affairs and agriculture, respectively.
Congress' Mukul Wasnik has been retained as the head of the Parliamentary panel on education, women, children and youth, while Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav has been retained as the chairperson of the panel on health and family welfare.
New chairpersons for key panels
BJP's Radha Mohan Singh will head the panel on defence. Sanjay Kumar Jha of the JD-U has been reappointed as the chairperson of the Parliamentary panel on transport, tourism and culture, while Shiv Sena's Shrirang Barne has been retained as head of the panel on energy.
NCP'S Sunil Datatrey Tatkare has been appointed to be the chairman of the committee on petroleum and natural gas.
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy has been appointed as the Chairman of the Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs.
BJP's Sujeet Kumar has replaced his party MP Brij Lal as the chairperson of the Parliamentary panel on personnel, public grievances, law and justice.
BJP retains several committee heads
Former Union minister Anurag Thakur has been reappointed as the head of the panel on coal, mines and steel, while BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy has been retained as the chairperson of the panel on water resources.
BJP's Bhartruhari Mahtab will continue to head the panel on finance, while his party colleague Radha Mohan Das Agarwal has been retained as the head of the panel on home affairs.
BJP's Nishikant Dubey has also been reappointed head of the panel on communications and information technology, while party MP from Maharashtra, Medha Vishram Kulkarni, has been retained as the chairperson of the committee on science and technology, environment, forests and climate change.
Changes in Railways, rural development panels
Sudheer Gupta of the BJP has replaced party colleague C M Ramesh as the chairperson of the panel on railways, while Congress' Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka has been reappointed head of the panel on rural development and Panchayati Raj.
BJP's P C Mohan has been appointed as Chairman of the committee on social justice and empowerment, while BJP MP Shashank Mani has been appointed the chairman of the committee on labour, textiles and skill development.