Members to 18 committees elected unanimously in Parliament

New Delhi: Notwithstanding the ongoing BJP-Congress row over the Leader of Opposition issue, some signs of bonhomie returned to Parliament with members to as many as 18 committees and government bodies being elected unanimously for the first time in decades.

Among the Committees to which unanimous elections have been held under the BJP-led governmment are the all important parliamentary financial committees including the crucial Public Accounts Committee, the Estimates Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings.

A majority of BJP members were elected in the Committees, which have representation of various other parties including the opposition.

In the 30-member Committee on Estimates, BJP has 18 while Congress, Trinamool Congress and AIADMK have two each. The BJD, TRS, RJD, CPI-M, Shiv Sena and TDP have one member each. The Committee's Chairmanship is likely to go to Murli Manohar Joshi, who is the senior-most member.

In the all-important Committee on Public Accounts, the BJP has eight members, while others include a member each from Congress, Trinamool Congress, Akali Dal, NPF, AIADMK, BJD and Shiv Sena. The Committee Chairmanship can go to KV Thomas of Congress.

A maximum of seven members can be nominated by the Rajya Sabha to this panel that looks into the finance and accounts of the government and scrutinises the Appropriation Accounts of Government of India and Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

In the Committee on Public Enterprises, of the 15 members elected unanimously are nine from BJP and one each from Congress, TDP, Trinamool Congress, AIADMK and BJD. Its chairmanship is likely to go to Shanta Kumar or Ramesh Bais of BJP.

Also in this list are comittees for the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the committee on OBCs, besides 13 important government bodies like the Coir Board, Tea Board, Coffee Board, Khadi Village and Industries Board and the ESIC.

Sources said better floor management and coordination with the opposition parties through back-channels led to mutual agreement between leaders of various parties, resulting in unanimous election following withdrawal of nominations by as many as 34 MPs.