Jockeying among various political parties has started to get a seat in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) after the UPA government has decided to make it a 30-member body. Twenty members will come from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.
Many smaller parties, which have no prospect on their own, are trying to latch on to bigger partners or banking on the strength of the groups to secure a position.
According to calculations, one seat for every 27 MPs is allotted for the Lok Sabha members in the JPC (total Lok Sabha seat of 543 divided by 20 seats). Similarly, one seat per 24 MPs is available in the Rajya Sabha quota.
As only two parties — the Congress and the BJP — have more than 27 and 24 MPs in the two Houses, they will bag 17 seats among themselves in the JPC, formed to probe various corrpution charges. Thirty-six other parties, including independents, have been left with 13 seats to find their space.
While parties like SP (22 Lok Sabha seats), BSP (21 seats), JD-U (20 seats) and Trinamool Congress (19 seats) have got JPC berths because of their ranks in the Lok Sabha — they are third, fourth, fifth and sixth-largest parties in the Lok Sabha — it is the smaller parties which are jostling for space.
| COUNTING SEATS Party position in JPC | ||
| Party | Lok Sabha | Rajya Sabha |
| Congress | 8 | 3 |
| BJP | 3 | 2 |
| Samajwadi Party | 1 | |
| BSP | 1 | 1 |
| DMK | 1 | 1 |
| JD(U) | 1 | 1 |
| BJD | 1 | |
| AIADMK | 1 | |
| Trinamool | 1 | |
| Left | 1 | 1 |
| NCP | 1 | |
| Shiv Sena | 1 | |
| Total | 21 | 9 |
The Shiv Sena, which has just 11 MPs in the Lok Sabha, today found a slot from the BJP’s quota of four seats from the Lok Sabha.
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J Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK, the arch rival of the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu, lobbied hard to get a slot. Last evening, AIADMK leader M Thambidurai called up CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and told him that Amma (as Jayalalitha is fondly called by her party colleagues) was keen to see that AIADMK got a slot and that the Left should also support this bid.
The CPI(M), which has entered into an alliance with AIADMK for the forthcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, has sought 22 seats from Jayalalithaa. Thambidurai also assured the CPI(M) that this demand of 22 seats “would be considered” if the Left helps the AIADMK get a berth.
The Left and some other opposition alliance consisting of non-NDA parties also helped the Biju Janta Dal get a place in the JPC from Lok Sabha.
CPI veteran Gurudas Dasgupta is known to be keen to be on board.