Key Opposition leaders, including Charanjit Singh Channi, Shashi Tharoor and Mukul Wasnik of the Congress and Tiruchi Siva and K Kanimozhi of the DMK, were today reappointed as chairpersons of important parliamentary committees.Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan on Saturday recast 24 department-related parliamentary panels (16 of the Lok Sabha and eight of the Rajya Sabha) naming former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi as chairman of the panel on agriculture.Congress’ Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, often at variance with his party over key policy issues, including Operation Sindoor, remains the head of the crucial Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs.Mukul Wasnik will chair the committee on women, children and education.While allies of the ruling NDA (JD-U, TDP, Shiv Sena and the NCP) landed key roles, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress lost the headship of two panels in the revamp.Dola Sen of the TMC has been replaced as chairperson of the commerce panel by BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivedi.Likewise, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, leader of the TMC rebel faction and now member of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, has taken over as chairperson of the panel on chemicals and fertilisers, replacing TMC’s Kirti Azad.BJP’s Sujeet Kumar has replaced Brij Lal as chairperson of the Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, while Sudheer Gupta has replaced CM Ramesh as head of the railways panel.DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and K Kanimozhi have been retained as chairpersons of panels on industry and consumer affairs, respectively.Among NDA allies, Sanjay Kumar Jha of the JD-U has been reappointed chairperson of the panel on transport, tourism and culture and Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Barne has been retained as head of the panel on energy; NCP’s Jattvibeil Tatkare has been named chairman of the committee on petroleum and natural gas and TDP MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy will chair the committee on housing and urban affairs.The defence panel will continue to be headed by BJP’s Radha Mohan Singh; home panel by BJP’s Radha Mohan Das Agarwal; IT and communications by BJP’s Nishikant Dubey; coal and mines by BJP’s Anurag Thakur; and water resources by BJP’s Rajeev Pratap Rudy.The finance panel head will be the incumbent veteran MP Bhartruhari Mahtab.Among members, AAP BJP Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha has been inducted into the external affairs committee and Swati Maliwal in education.