TMC loses 2 chairships to BJP, rebel faction in major parliamentary panel reshuffle

In a major reshuffle of Parliamentary standing committees on Saturday, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) lost both its chairperson berths, with BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivedi taking over the commerce committee and rebel TMC leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar heading the chemicals and fertilisers panel.

TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen was replaced by Trivedi as chairperson of the commerce committee.

TMC MP Kirti Azad was replaced as chairperson of the chemicals and fertilisers committee by Kakoli, widely considered the face of the rebel faction. The faction has claimed to have merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), with the matter pending before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

The railway standing committee, earlier headed by BJP’s CM Ramesh, will now be chaired by party MP Sudheer Gupta. BJP’s Basavaraj Bommai, who headed the labour, textiles and skill development committee, has been replaced by Shashank Mani.

Similarly, BJP’s Brij Lal has been replaced by party colleague Sujeet Kumar as chairperson of the personnel, public grievances, law and justice committee.

In the education, women, children and youth committee, Congress’s Digvijaya Singh has been replaced by party colleague Mukul Wasnik. Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor, Saptagiri Ulaka and Charanjit Singh Channi have retained their chairpersonships of the external affairs, rural development and panchayati raj, and agriculture committees, respectively.

TMC’s Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien wrote to Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan opposing the reshuffle.

“In Rajya Sabha, the BJP is the largest party, followed by the INC (second largest) and AITC (third largest). And yet, the Chairpersonship, which we held in 2024-25 and 2025-26, has been taken away. This is not the first time we have been treated in this manner! In 2019, when we were also the third largest party in Rajya Sabha, we were deprived. That was rectified a few years later, and now it is back to square one. Indeed, for the above, and many other reasons, it must be said that Parliament is being turned into a deep, dark chamber,” he wrote.

According to officials, the chairpersons of the 16 department-related standing committees under the Lok Sabha are appointed by the Speaker, while the Rajya Sabha chairman appoints those of eight committees under Upper House.

Abhishek Banerjee also wrote to Birla, objecting to Dastidar’s appointment and saying his request that rebel MPs be kept out of consideration until disqualification petitions were decided had been disregarded. He questioned the party affiliation under which chairpersonship was allotted.

“...The Digital Sansad website continues to show 28 Lok Sabha Members belonging to AITC. The Member appointed, however, claims affiliation with the NCPI through a purported merger disputed in the pending disqualification proceedings. Under which party affiliation has this chairmanship been allotted?” he wrote.