Rajya Sabha, PTI File Photo
Congress is set to lose out on the chairmanship of the Parliamentary committee on law and justice, handling sensitive issues such as political funding and electoral reforms, after the BJP increased its numbers in the Rajya Sabha.
Senior BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav is all set to be the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice, Personnel and Public Grievances which was earlier helmed by former Union Minister and Congress leader Anand Sharma.
Congress is the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha with 57 members, by virtue of which it got to chair three of the eight Parliamentary committees that were headed by members of the upper house. The BJP chaired two committees.
After the recent round of Rajya Sabha elections, the BJP improved its tally to 56 members and hopes to better the Congress in numbers in the Upper House.
Congress was keen to keep the chairmanship of the Law and Justice committee and had conveyed to the government its willingness to give up the panel on Science and Technology and Environment.
Three rounds of talks between the Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley were unfruitful.
The BJP argued that as per convention, it was the ruling party that chaired the committee on Law and Justice, Personnel and Public Grievances. The panel is important as it keeps oversight on the functioning of the CBI and the appointment of high court and supreme court judges.
Azad had shot off a letter to the Parliamentary Affairs Minister stating the Congress position of keeping the chairmanship of the committees on Home Affairs and Law and Justice chaired by former union ministers P Chidambaram and Sharma respectively. It had expressed willingness to give up the committee on Science and Technology chaired by Renuka Chowdhary.