Rahul Gandhi Retains Parliament's Defence Standing Committee Membership, Kangana Ranaut Gets IT

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi will continue as a member of the Parliament's Standing Committee on Defence, while actor-politician Kangana Ranaut, a first-time BJP parliamentarian, has been appointed to the Information Technology (IT) committee, as per a notification issued by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat on Thursday.

Rahul Gandhi, who also serves as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, was previously part of the Defence Committee in the last Parliament.

Photo Credit: PTI

The committee will be chaired by BJP MP Radha Mohan Singh. The Congress party has been given leadership of four committees, including External Affairs, which will be headed by Shashi Tharoor, a former Foreign Minister.

Other key committees led by Congress include Education, Women, Children, Youth, and Sports, chaired by Digvijaya Singh; Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Food Processing, chaired by ex-Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Channi; and Rural and Panchayati Raj, led by Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka. Notably, Sonia Gandhi, a seven-time MP and former Congress chief, has not been appointed to any committee.

BJP members will chair major committees such as Defence, Finance, Home Affairs, and Coal, Mines, and Steel, along with Communications and IT, where Kangana Ranaut is now a member. The Home Affairs committee will be led by Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, while Bhartruhari Mahtab, who was Pro-Tem Speaker, will head the Finance Committee.

Former Union ministers Anurag Thakur and Rajiv Pratap Rudy will oversee the Coal, Mines, and Steel and Water Resources committees, respectively. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has been appointed to lead the Communications and IT committee, a role previously held by Shashi Tharoor before Dubey replaced him in 2022 after a dispute over Facebook's hate speech policies.

Other Opposition figures include Jaya Bachchan of the Samajwadi Party, who joins Ranaut on the IT committee. Priyanka Chaturvedi from Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena group is also part of the committee, alongside Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who gained attention after her disqualification in the last Lok Sabha.

DMK leaders Tiruchi Siva and Kanimozhi will chair the Industry and Consumer Affairs, and Food and Public Distribution committees, respectively. Several of BJP's allies have also been given leadership roles, such as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's TDP heading the Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JDU leading the Transport, Tourism, and Culture Committee. Together, these two parties won 28 Lok Sabha seats.

Ahead of Maharashtra's state elections, the BJP's state allies-the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the NCP faction of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar-will lead the Energy and Petroleum and Natural Gas committees.

These department-related standing committees include members from both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, acting as "mini parliaments" to oversee the functioning of their respective ministries.

(With agency inputs)