JPC expands,to now have 30 members
PTI
NEW DELHI, Feb 23
The opposition forced the government to accept its demand for a bigger joint parliamentary committee into the 2G scam which will now be a 30-member body accommodating small parties and is evenly balanced between the rival sides.
The committee would have 20 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha, instead of 21—15 from the LS and 6 from RS—as was earlier believed to be.
The ruling (UPA) has managed to secure 15 members by projecting the whole alliance as a group. While BJP is expected to have six members, the Janata Dal (United), which is part of the NDA two members.
There are indications that the BJP could give one seat to its long-time ally Shiv Sena.
The party has already announced that former ministers Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha and senior leader Harin Pathak (all from Lok Sabha) and S S Ahluwalia and Ravi
Shankar Prasad (both Rajya Sabha) will represent it in the JPC.
In the UPA, the Congress could get as many as 11 seats, Dravida Munetra Kazagahm (DMK) two while Trinamool Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) one each.
Among the non-Congress, non-BJP parties, Left will get two seats, Bahujan Samaj Party two, Samajwadi Party and All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazagahm one each.
The names of Congress leaders P C Chacko and V Kishore Chandra Deo are doing the rounds for the chairmanship of the committee, a formal motion for which would be moved by leader of the house pranab Mukherjee in Lok Sabha tomorrow.
The motion is expected to contain the terms of reference of the committee and will recommend to the Rajya Sabha nomination of its members to the JPC.
