Ekanth Shinde-led faction of Shiv Sena is likely to get the chairmanship of the standing committee for Communications and Information Technology which is currently chaired by Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor.
It is learnt that Shiv Sena is going to nominate MP Prataprao Jadhav for the post. “Our party has been offered the chairmanship of the IT committee and, after consultation with top leaders, we have decided to nominate Jadhav,” the Sena sources said.
Prataprao Jadhav is a Lok Sabha MP from the Buldhana constituency in Maharashtra. Jadhav was one of the many Shiv Sena MPs who jumped into the rebellion ship led by Eknath Shinde.
The standing committees for both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are likely to be reconstituted in the coming days and the main opposition party, Congress, is likely to lose out on several communities where the chairman was from their party, including the IT committee.
Notably, several opposition MPs, including Karti Chidambaram, John Brittas, and others, have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, requesting for the continuation of Tharoor as the chairman of the IT panel.
The Standing Committee for Communications and Information Technology has been a point of friction between the ruling BJP MPs and the Opposition MPs led by Chairman Tharoor.
Another member of the IT panel, Nishikant Dubey, on several occasions, has asked for the removal of Tharoor and has also moved a couple of breach of privilege motions against him.
In September 2019, Shashi Tharoor, a Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram, was appointed as the chairman of the Committee for Communications and Information Technology by the Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla. Despite opposition from several BJP MPs, Tharoor was reappointed as the panel chief in September 2021 through a voice vote.
