Shashi Tharoor is in the race to be Congress president. (File)
Major changes are expected as Parliamentary Standing Committees are all set to be reconstituted in the coming few days. As per top sources, the principal opposition Congress is all set to lose the headship of the Standing Committee for Home Affairs, which is a Rajya Sabha-chaired panel, and of the Lok Sabha-chaired panel for Communication and Information Technology.
The IT committee is currently chaired by Shashi Tharoor from the Congress. "The committees are constituted every few years and it has been a precedent to rotate chairmanship accordingly," a source told ANI.
But Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, has written to House Leader and minister Piyush Goyal of the BJP, saying that as per parliamentary niceties, the post of chairman of Committee for Home Affairs has always been given to the Opposition.
An excerpt of the letter accessed by ANI reads, "As is understood, the post of Chairperson in respect of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change is being given to INC (Congress). The purpose of my present letter is to request that this time also, the post of Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Home Affairs may be given to Congress.
"While I do appreciate that the number of particular parties determines the allocation of the post of Chairpersons to the respective parties. However, in a democracy, the accommodating understanding or principle of give-and-take goes a long way in ensuring the effective functioning of institutions like the Parliament. It is in this spirit that this time also, the post of Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Home Affairs may be given to Congress. I sincerely hope that this request of our party would be acceded to," he has further written
But sources said the BJP is all set to keep crucial committees like IT and home affairs with itself.
In other changes expected, the Trinamool Congress will now have no new chairpersonship of any committee. At present its Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay is the chairman of food processing committee.
"We have seen how the Trinamool Congress has behaved with the BJP in the state of Bengal and it's time for them to get a dose of their own medicine," a source told ANI.
In the health committee, Ram Gopal Yadav from the Samajwadi party has been holding the post for a long time and is all set to be replaced.
Several vacancies have been created in various committees with more than 75 Rajya Sabha members retiring recently.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)