In a major reshuffle of Parliamentary standing committees on Saturday, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) lost both its chairperson berths, with BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivedi taking over the commerce committee and rebel TMC leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar heading the chemicals and fertilisers panel.
In the education, women, children and youth committee, Congress’s Digvijaya Singh has been replaced by party colleague Mukul Wasnik. Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor, Saptagiri Ulaka and Charanjit Singh Channi have retained their chairpersonships of the external affairs, rural development and panchayati raj, and agriculture committees, respectively. “In Rajya Sabha, the BJP is the largest party, followed by the INC (second largest) and AITC (third largest). This is not the first time we have been treated in this manner! That was rectified a few years later, and now it is back to square one.
And yet, the Chairpersonship, which we held in 2024-25 and 2025-26, has been taken away. In 2019, when we were also the third largest party in Rajya Sabha, we were deprived. The chairpersons of the 16 department-related standing committees under the Lok Sabha are appointed by the Speaker, while the Rajya Sabha chairman appoints those of eight committees under Upper House, according to officials.
Indeed, for the above, and many other reasons, it must be said that Parliament is being turned into a deep, dark chamber,” he wrote.
