2G scam: JPC on Thursday to have 30 members from both houses

The Committee would have 20 members from the Lok Sabha and ten from the Rajya Sabha.

Opposition on Wednesday 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 ten 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 the main opposition BJP is expected to have six members,the JD(U),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,DMK two while Trinamool Congress and NCP one each.

Among the non-Congress,non-BJP parties,Left will get two seats,BSP two,BJD,SP and AIADMK one each.

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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 House Pranab Mukherjee in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

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.

A Raja of the DMK,who was forced to quit as Telecom Minister and is currently lodged in Tihar Jail,is unlikely to take part in the discussion when the motion for the constitution of the JPC is taken up in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The issue would be taken up next week in the Rajya Sabha.

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