The ruling coalition and the main opposition have decided on the names of the candidates to lead the parliamentary committees, nine months after the election of the House of Representatives.

The parties have finalised the names of the candidates to lead the House committees after Speaker Devraj Ghimire, during the House meeting on Thursday, announced the election for House committees’ leadership for Monday at 3pm.

As per the decision, the Nepali Congress will file nominations to lead four committees, the main opposition CPN-UML will file nominations claiming leadership of three committees, ruling coalition partner CPN (Maoist Centre) will field two candidates while the CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajbadi Party and Janmat Party will file nominations for the leadership of one House committee each.

Congress is preparing to field lawmaker Ramhari Khatiwada as the Chairman of the State Affairs Committee, Santosh Chalise as the head of the Finance Committee and Arzu Rana Deuba as the chair of the Agriculture Committee, have been finalised.

Likewise, the Maoist Centre has picked Madhav Sapkota as the candidate to lead the Development Committee and Bimala Subedi for the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee.

Similarly, JSP lawmaker Rajkishore Yadav will file his candidacy to lead the Committee on International Relations and Tourism.

From the main opposition–CPN-UML– Rishi Pokharel has been picked as the candidate to lead the Public Accounts Committee while the party’s Kiran Sah’s candidacy has been finalised for the Women and Social Affairs Committee.

Janamat has finalised the name of Abdul Khan to lead the Industry Committee and Unified Socialist’s Bhanubhakta Joshi will file a nomination to lead the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee.

Out of the 16 committees in the federal parliament, the four under the National Assembly have their chairs, while the remaining 12—ten in the lower house and two joint committees with the representatives from both houses—have remained without leadership.

In a parliamentary democracy, the committees are set up to complement Parliament. Their role becomes more vital when the Houses are not in session. Parliamentary committees also effectively monitor the government activities and the functioning of other state bodies by putting the executive’s decisions up for debate. Unlike the full House, they can thoroughly discuss not just major issues but also minor ones and issue instructions to the government and its agencies.

The House committees have been designed in such a way that each has the responsibility to hold particular government agencies to account.