Ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, former Union minister and five-term MP from Himachal Pradesh’s Hamirpur, Anurag Thakur, recently dropped from the union cabinet, made a comeback on Friday in a top Lok Sabha committee tasked with finalising the house agenda and deciding on time to be allocated for each item on the table.
Thakur found a place in the 15-member Lok Sabha Business Advisory Committee which Speaker Om Birla constituted on Friday.
The Speaker nominated Thakur alongside five other BJP heavyweights — party’s national vice president and Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda, seven-term MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, former Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal, four-term MP from Jharkhand’s Godda Nishikant Dubey and party’s senior member PP Chaudhary.
The BAC committee that includes the Speaker as ex-officio chairman also has MPs from two BJP allies in the NDA — TDP’s Lavu Devarayalu and JD (U)’s Dileshwar Kamat.
Opposition members on the panel are — Congress’s deputy leader in LS Gaurag Gogoi and chief whip K Suresh, TMC’s Sudip Bandopadhyay, DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran, Samajwadi Party’s Lalji Verma and Shiv Sena UBT’s Arvind Sawant.
The first meeting of the BAC is expected on Monday ahead of the Union Budget presentation on July 23.
Lok Sabha sources said BAC of the 18th Lok Sabha would have a crucial role given the larger presence of the opposition as compared to the 16th and 17th Lok Sabhas when the opposition had fallen short of numbers to even claim the official leader of opposition post which has now gone to Congress’s Rahul Gandhi.
Opposition INDIA bloc has 233 MPs in the Lok Sabha this time as against ruling NDA’s 293.
“The opposition’s say in deciding the house agenda and time to be allocated for discussions on government and other business will be greater this time. Also unlike in the previous Lok Sabha when the BJP had a majority, the 18th Lok Sabha will see more time allocation for opposition MPs as their numbers have grown,” sources said.
The committee, on its own initiative, can also recommend to the government to bring forward particular subjects for discussion in the House and recommend allocation of time for such discussions.
The opposition is determined to demand discussions on paper leak, Agniveer and other people-related issues when the BAC meets for the first time next week.
6 new bills listed
Besides the Finance Bill, the government has listed six new bills for introduction in the upcoming Monsoon Session from July 22 to August 12. These are Bhartiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024, which will replace the 90-year-old Aircraft Act to enhance ease of doing business in aviation; Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill to bring greater clarity to the roles of different organisations working in the segment; Boilers Bill to replace a pre-Independence-era law; Coffee (Promotion and Development) Bill and the Rubber (Promotion and Development) Bill.