Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar nominated four women parliamentarians to the panel of vice-chairpersons, giving women equal representation in the panel, for the first time in the history of the Rajya Sabha, even as the women’s reservation Bill, that was first introduced in 1996, remains pending.
The panel, which was reconstituted before the monsoon session, has a total of eight members.
Among the newly nominated members, S. Phangnon Konyak has also found a berth. She is the first ever woman from Nagaland to be elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha. The other members are: nominated member P.T. Usha, BJD’s Sulata Deo and NCP’s Fauzia Khan. Both Ms. Khan and Ms. Usha were part of the earlier panel too. Among the men, Congress’s L. Hanumanthiah, Trinamool Congress’s Sukendu Shekhar Ray and the BJP’s Ghanshyam Tewari were nominated for the panel.
