The Congress wants to see that Mamata Banerjee does not face any “red signal” while running the railway ministry. So, the chairman’s post of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways will not be retained by CPI(M)’s Basudeb Acharia.
Although the CPI(M) has emphasised that the railway panel’s post is its top choice, Congress floor managers have already conveyed to the comrades that “it will be difficult” to fulfil their dreams. The CPI(M) is likely to get the chairman’s seat in the Standing Committee on coal and steel or energy.
The parliamentary affairs ministry, headed by Pawan Kumar Bansal, is currently working on the various wish lists of different parties to constitute the Standing Committees. Out of 24 Standing Committees, 16 are headed by Lok Sabha members while eight will have Rajya Sabha MPs as their chairpersons. The Speaker and the Vice-President will take the final call on the committees but as a practice, they will go according to the suggestions of the government managers.
A top Congress manager told Business Standard: “We can assume that Mamata Banerjee might have some concerns if the CPI(M) retains the railway panel chairman’s post. We will try to address her concerns.”
The leader also pointed out that generally it is the practice that the railway panel chairman’s post is given to a partner of the ruling alliance.
The Congress has also refused to give the Standing Committee on Rural Development to the Left. Rural development is another pet area of Banerjee and she has a minister of state — Shishir Adhikary of the Trinamool Congress — in the Union rural development ministry.
The CPI(M) is also not sure if it can retain its chairmanship of the Standing Committee on Tranport, Tourism and Culture. Currently it is headed by Rajya Sabha member Sitaram Yechury. “We have sought to retain the same committee. But now it is for the government to decide. I don’t know what they will do,” Yechury said.
During the last Lok Sabha, the CPI(M) had three chairman’s posts in the standing committees of railway, urban development, and transport, tourism and culture. But after the 2009 elections, its tally has come down to just 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha, and so it is entitled to two posts altogether. Acharia and Yechury have been nominated by the party to act as chairpersons.
Tarun Mondol, the SUCI MP from West Bengal who got elected with Banerjee’s support, said that they did not want to see Acharia heading the railway panel. “There is already a question on what has been his contribution as the standing committee chairman. He hasn’t done much in that capacity. So, he should make way for a new person to head the panel.”
Acharia, a nine-term MP, has a long track record of being associated with railway panels in Parliament. During 1985-89, he was the member of Railway Convention Committee. From 1990 to 1996, he became a member of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Railways. In 1996-97, he was the chairman of the Standing Committee on Railways. He headed the panel again in 2004.
