The Bharatiya Janata Party did not have to worry about parliamentary committees in the 16th and 17th Lok Sabha. Even she was not worried about the Public Accounts Committee i.e. PAC. Everywhere was filled with BJP MPs. Most of the standing committees of the Parliament were headed directly by the BJP or by its allies. Even in the parliamentary committees where opposition parties got the chairmanship, BJP and NDA had the majority. BJP’s own seats were 284 in the 16th Lok Sabha and 303 in the 17th Lok Sabha. The number of NDA MPs was around three hundred and fifty. Only then BJP did not have to worry about the standing committees of Parliament. But the picture has changed in the 18th Lok Sabha. BJP is on 240 seats and NDA’s number has come down to three hundred.
The direct result of reduction in NDA seats and increase in opposition seats is that many standing committees have gone out of the hands of the ruling coalition. Congress has got the chairmanship of a total of five parliamentary committees, of which one is the Public Accounts Committee. Apart from this, there are important ministries like Foreign, Agriculture, Education. Opposition parties have got the chairmanship of a total of nine standing committees. Its impact will be visible on the functioning of Parliament in the future. BJP is aware of this situation, hence it has placed its outspoken and educated MPs in more than one standing committee. Usually an MP is a member of only one standing committee. But this time BJP has placed its 28 MPs in more than one standing committee. He has been specially placed in such committees which are headed by opposition MPs. Only one MP from the opposition has got a place in two standing committees. That MP is Sudip Bandopadhyay of Trinamool Congress. Don’t know what will be Mamata Banerjee’s attitude towards him after this. She is always apprehensive about the activities of her MPs in Delhi.