Parliament Reconstitutes Its Standing Committees With Six Panels Under New Chairmen
Six of Indian Parliament's 24 department-related standing committees have changed hands in the annual reconstitution of the panels, which takes effect from 26 September 2026 for the 2026-27 term, with the Trinamool Congress losing the two chairmanships it held.
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The commerce committee, which the Trinamool's Rajya Sabha member Dola Sen chaired through the outgoing year, passes to Sudhanshu Trivedi of the BJP. The committee on chemicals and fertilisers, chaired by the Trinamool's Kirti Azad, goes to Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.
Dastidar's position is itself unsettled. She led a group of Trinamool MPs that broke away after the West Bengal assembly elections earlier this year and told the Lok Sabha Speaker it had merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, a Tripura-based outfit, seeking recognition as a separate bloc. Om Birla has yet to rule on the claim.
Derek O'Brien, the Trinamool's leader in Parliament, wrote to the Rajya Sabha chairman, C P Radhakrishnan, objecting. Parliament, he said in the letter, was "being turned into a deep, dark chamber". He argued that his party is the third largest in the Upper House after the BJP and the Congress, that it had held a chairmanship in each of the past two years, and that it had been similarly passed over in 2019 before the position was restored some years later.
The BJP made three changes among the panels it holds. Sujeet Kumar replaces Brij Lal at the committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice, ahead of Brij Lal's Rajya Sabha term ending in November. Shashank Mani takes over from Basavaraj Bommai at labour, textiles and skill development, and Sudhir Gupta replaces C M Ramesh at railways.
The committee on education, women, children, youth and sports is now chaired by the Congress's Mukul Wasnik. He takes over from his party colleague Digvijaya Singh.
The eighteen other committees keep the leadership they had. Among those retained are the DMK's Tiruchi Siva at industry and Kanimozhi at food, consumer affairs and public distribution; Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party at health and family welfare; and, from the Congress, Charanjit Singh Channi at agriculture and Shashi Tharoor at external affairs. The heads of panels held by the BJP's main allies, including the Janata Dal (United), the Shiv Sena and the Telugu Desam Party, also continue.
The reconstituted commerce committee, now under Trivedi, draws ten members from the Rajya Sabha and twenty-one from the Lok Sabha, with Dola Sen continuing as a member of the panel she previously chaired.
Parliament's department-related standing committees take members from both Houses, examine the work of the ministries assigned to them, and scrutinise their demands for grants. Eight function under the Rajya Sabha chairman and sixteen under the Lok Sabha Speaker. Each panel is constituted for a single year and then reconstituted, the exercise that was completed this weekend.