The Congress party has managed to get chairs for four committees in the Parliament as the negotiations for the Parliamentary Standing Committees between the government and the Opposition come to an end.
The Congress has gotten chairs for three committees in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha, sources told Indian Express. In the Lok Sabha the Congress will get chairs for the External Affairs Standing Committee, Standing Committee on Agriculture and the Standing Committee on Rural Development. In the Rajya Sabha, it will get the Standing Committee for Education.
Initially, the grand old party had demanded chairs for five Parliamentary Standing Committees.
According to IE sources, one chair each is also likely to be granted to INDIA alliance partners – the Samajwadi Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).
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Several rounds of meetings between the government representatives and Opposition members took place before the government decided to allocate the standing committee chairs to the Opposition.
The meetings were attended by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, and Union Minister of State for Law and Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal. The Congress was represented by Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, and chief whips of the parties Kodikunnil Suresh and Hairam Ramesh.
In the last Lok Sabha term, when the Congress had 53 members, the party had the chairmanship of just one committee. This time, the Congress has 99 members in the Lok Sabha while other Opposition parties like the Samajwadi Party (37), TMC (29), and DMK (22) have considerable numbers in the Lok Sabha. These parties are also expected to get some representation in the House committees.