New Delhi: Notwithstanding the ongoing BJP-Congress row over the Leader of Opposition issue, some signs of bohomie returned to Parliament with members to as many as 18 committees and government bodies being elected unanimously for the first time in decades.
Among the Committees to which unanimous elections have been held under the BJP-led governmment are the all important parliamentary financial committees including the crucial Public Accounts Committee, the Estimates Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings.
A majority of BJP members were elected in the Committees, which have representation of various other parties including the opposition.
In the 30-member Committee on Estimates, BJP has 18 while Congress, Trinamool Congress and AIADMK have two each. The BJD, TRS, RJD, CPI-M, Shiv Sena and TDP have one member each. The Committee’s Chairmanship is likely to go to Murli Manohar Joshi, who is the senior-most member.
In the all-important Committee on Public Accounts, the BJP has eight members, while others include a member each from Congress, Trinamool Congress, Akali Dal, NPF, AIADMK, BJD and Shiv Sena. The Committee Chairmanship can go to K V Thomas of Congress.
A maximum of seven members can be nominated by the Rajya Sabha to this panel that looks into the finance and accounts of the government and scrutinises the Appropriation Accounts of Government of India and Report of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India.
In the Committee on Public Enterprises, of the 15 members elected unanimously are 9 from BJP and one each from Congress, TDP, Trinamool Congress, AIADMK and BJD. Its chairmanship is likely to go to Shanta Kumar or Ramesh Bais of BJP.
Also in this list are comittees for the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the committee on OBCs, besides 13 important government bodies like the Coir Board, Tea Board, Coffee Board, Khadi Village and Industries Board and the ESIC.
Sources said better floor management and coordination with the opposition parties through back-channels led to mutual agreement between leaders of various parties, resulting in unanimous election following withdrawal of nominations by as many as 34 MPs.
There were a total of 159 nominations that were received for as many as 148 positions in 18 committees and government bodies.
Sources said the Parliamentary Financial Committees are keenly contested for the last many years, but this time the new government has helped formulate them within the first few days of the first Session of the 16th lok Sabha.
The sources recalled that the last time such unanimous elections were held to the important parliamentary panels and government bodies was in 1984 when Congress was elected with an absolute majority.
In the all-important Committee on Public Accounts, the prominent members of BJP include S S Ahluwalia, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Janardan Singh Sigriwal, Kirit Somaiya and party’s young leaders Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Anurag Thakur, Nishikant Dubey and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha’s son Jayant Sinha.
Among those from the other parties who are members of this panel are Sudip Bandyopadhyay (TMC), M Thambidurai (AIADMK), K V Thomas (Congress), Ranjit Singh Brahmpura (Akali Dal), Neiphiu Rio (NPF), Bhartruhari Mehtab (BJD) and Gajanan Kirtikar (Shiv Sena).
Among the BJP members elected unanimously to the Committee on Public Undertakings are Ramesh Bais, Pankaj Chowdhary, Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan, Dilipkumar Mansukhlal Gandhi, Shanta Kumar, Khambhampati Haribabu, Yogi Adityanand, Prahlad Patel and Ram Sinh Rathwa.
The other members in the panel are Biren Singh Engti (Congress), Baijayant Panda (BJD), Rayapati Sambasiva Rao (TDP), Saugata Roy (TMC) and B Senguttuvan (AIADMK).
The panel examines reports and accounts of Public Undertakings of the Government of India and also examines CAG reports on the Public Undertakings.
In the Committee on Estimates, the prominent members of various parties elected are former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and K H Muniyappa (both Congress), P Kumar and K N Ramachandran (both AIADMK), Kalyan Banerjee and Sultan Ahmed (both TMC), Kalikesh Singh Deo (BJD), J C Divakar Reddy (TDP), Mohammed Salim (CPI-M), Kavitha Kalvakuntla (TRS), Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav (RJD) and Arvind sawant (Shiv Sena).
Among the prominent BJP members on this panel are Murli Manohar Joshi, Kirti Azad, Ashwini Choubey, Sanjay Jaiswal, Vinod Khanna, Kirti Vardhan Singh and Ram Kripal Yadav.
The Committee is to suggest improvements in organisation, efficiency or administrative reform besides alternative policies in order to bring about efficiency and economy in administration.
Sources said five members withdrew their candidature from the Committee on Public Accounts, including Saugata Roy (TMC), Gajanan Kirtikar (Shiv Sena) and Prem Singh Chandumajra (SAD).
For the Committee on Public Undertakings, six members had withdrawn including Kalyan Banerjee (TMC), B Vinod Kumar and Jithender Reddy (both TRS).
In the Estimates Committees, five members withdrew including Shailender Kumar (JD-U), Akshay Yadav (SP) and Naba Kumar Sarania (Independent from Assam) and formerly with ULFA.
Sources add that the unanimity over the appointments came after talks by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu with opposition leaders. (PTI)