In a major reshuffle of chairpersons of six of the 24 Standing Parliamentary Committees, the Trinamool Congress on Saturday lost both its chairperson berths owing to a group of their MPs switching camps after the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections.The Parliamentary Committee on Commerce, which was headed by TMC Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen will now be headed by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi. The Committee on Chemicals, which was headed by TMC MP Kirti Azad, will now be headed by Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who led the TMC rebel faction and claimed to have merged with lesser-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).Soon after the BJP swept the West Bengal Assembly elections in May, a group of TMC MPs led by Dastidar approached the Speaker, claiming that they had merged with the NCPI, a Tripura-based outfit, and sought to be recognised as a separate bloc in Lok Sabha. A decision on the breakaway faction’s fate is pending before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.TMC slams moveReacting strongly to the reshuffle, TMC Parliamentary Leader Derek O’Brien wrote a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan, saying that the “Parliament is being turned into a deep, dark chamber”. The leader of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC faction maintained that theirs is the third largest party in the Upper House, but is being “deprived” of a chairperson berth.“In Rajya Sabha, the BJP is the largest party, followed by the INC (second largest) and AITC (third largest). And yet, the Chairpersonship, which we held in 2024-25 and 2025-26, has been taken away. This is not the first time we have been treated in this manner! In 2019, when we were also the third largest party in Rajya Sabha, we were deprived. That was rectified a few years later and now it is back to square one,” said the TMC leader in his letter.Other panel chief changesOther changes announced by Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Saturday include Congress Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh being replaced by party colleague Mukul Wasnik to head the committee on education.Meanwhile, the BJP has reshuffled three of its committee chairpersons, with party MP Brij Lal being replaced by party colleague Sujeet Kumar to head the committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice. Rajya Sabha member Brij Lal’s term in the Upper House is set to end in November.Story continues below this adThe BJP has replaced Lok Sabha MP Basavaraj Bommai with Shashank Mani to head the Labour, Textiles and Skill Development Committee. The third change that the BJP has made is in the Committee on Railways, with the party appointing its MP Sudhir Gupta instead of C M Ramesh.Those retainedAmong those who have retained their chairpersonships include DMK MPs Tiruchi Siva and K Kanimozhi who will continue to head the Parliamentary Committee on Industry, and the Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, respectively.Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor and Charanjit Singh Channi, have also been retained as chairpersons of Committees on External Affairs, and Agriculture, respectively. Meanwhile, party MP Mukul Wasnik will continue to head the Committee on Education, Women, Children and Youth.Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav has also been retained as the chairperson of the Committee on Health and Family Welfare.Story continues below this adThe leaders of some key BJP allies such as the JD(U), Shiv Sena and TDP have also been retained as heads of different Parliamentary Committees.The Parliament has a total of 24 department-related Standing Committees with members from both the Houses; while eight come under the Rajya Sabha Chairman, the other 16 are under the Lok Sabha Speaker. The Committees serve a one-year term, after which they are reconstituted.