In a recent announcement by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, Congress Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi will continue his membership on the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence. Meanwhile, first-time BJP parliamentarian and actor Kangana Ranaut has been appointed to the Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT).
Gandhi, who serves as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, was also a member of the Defence Committee in the previous Lok Sabha. The committee will be chaired by BJP MP Radha Mohan Singh. The Congress Party has been allocated the leadership of four committees, including the committee on External Affairs, which will be led by former Foreign Minister Shashi Tharoor.
In addition to External Affairs, Congress will chair committees on Education, Women, Children, Youth, and Sports, led by Digvijaya Singh; Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Food Processing, headed by former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Channi; and Rural and Panchayati Raj, which will be chaired by Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka. Notably, seven-time MP and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has not been assigned to any committee.
Members of the ruling BJP will lead several key committees, including Defence, Finance, Home Affairs, and Coal, Mines, and Steel. Kangana Ranaut will serve on the Communications and IT committee, which will also be led by Nishikant Dubey. The Home Affairs committee will be chaired by Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, while the Standing Committee on Finance will be led by Bhartruhari Mahtab.
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Former Union Ministers Anurag Thakur and Rajiv Pratap Rudy will head the committees on Coal, Mines, and Steel, and Water Resources, respectively. In the previous Lok Sabha, Dubey and Tharoor had a contentious exchange over Facebook’s policies regarding hate speech, which ultimately resulted in Dubey succeeding Tharoor as committee head in 2022.
Other notable members include Jaya Bachchan from the Samajwadi Party, who joins Ranaut on the Communications and IT committee, along with Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi and Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra. Tiruchi Siva and Kanimozhi from Tamil Nadu’s DMK will chair committees on Industry and Consumer Affairs, and Food and Public Distribution.
Several BJP allies, having contributed to the party’s electoral success in the recent general election, will also lead committees. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United) will oversee Housing and Urban Affairs, and Transport, Tourism, and Culture, respectively. Additionally, state allies from Maharashtra, including the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, will chair the Energy and Petroleum and Natural Gas panels.
Each department-related standing committee, comprising members from both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, functions as a ‘mini parliament,’ providing oversight on the operations of their respective ministries.
