New Delhi: Rajya Sabha chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday nominated former chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, BJP turncoat leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress’s Digvijaya Singh and others to various parliamentary standing committees, a day after administering the oath/affirmation to them.
Scindia has become a member of the parliamentary committee on human resource development (HRD), while Gogoi has been made a member of the committee on external affairs.
The election of Scindia and Gogoi to the Rajya Sabha was mired in controversy. While the former CJI’s nomination to the upper house by the government was seen as a blow to the independence of the judiciary, Scindia defected from the Congress along with several MLAs from Madhya Pradesh, resulting in the collapse of the Kamal Nath government.
Congress members Digvijaya Singh and Mallikarjun Kharge have been nominated to the committees on urban development and commerce respectively. NCP leader Sharad Pawar has been made a member of the committee on defence.
Former Lok Sabha deputy speaker M. Thambi Durai to the committee on HRD, and former Rajya Sabha deputy speaker Harivansh to the panel on agriculture.
Former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who took oath as Rajya Sabha member, has been nominated to the committee on railways.
Vinay P. Sahasrabuddhe has been appointed as the chairman of the committee on HRD further to the expiry of the membership of Satyanarayan Jatiya.
With this, those who have made oath/affirmation on July 22 will get to participate in the meetings of respective committees.
Forty-five of the 61 newly elected members of Rajya Sabha took oath on Wednesday.
The remaining 16 new members would participate only after subscribing to oath/affirmation, an official statement said.
In all, Naidu has nominated 65 members to different committees, including filling up of some vacancies by the sitting members. Ramdas Athawale, being a minister, was not nominated to any committee.
Among others who have been nominated to various Parliamentary Committees are Bhubaneswar Kalita (HRD), G.K. Vasan (HRD), Subrata Bakshi, Ram Chander Jangra, Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy and Sumer Singh Solanki (all urban development); Priyanka Chaturvedi, Deepak Prakash, Mausam Noor (all commerce); K.T.S. Tulsi, Nabam Rebia, J.M. Lokhandwala, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, Muzibulla Khan (all energy); Dinesh Trivedi (home affairs); and Udayan Raje Bhonsle, Narahari Ameen and Phulo Devi Netam (all railways).
Prem Chand Gupta and Rajeev Satav have been nominated to the committee on defence, Tiruchi Siva and K.C. Venugopal to the committee on transport, tourism and culture), and Shibu Soren and Mopidevi Venkataramana Rao to the committee on coal and steel.
(With PTI inputs)