Manmohan Singh back in Parliament Finance Committee

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had earlier expressed reluctance to join any Parliamentary panel, will now be a member of Standing Committee on Finance with party colleague Digvijay Singh making way for him.

Singh recently quit the 31-member panel headed by BJP MP following which Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu cleared Singh's nomination on November 6.

Digvijay Singh has now been moved to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Urban Development.

The 31-member panel headed by BJP MP and former Union Minister Jayant Sinha. In the last five years, Congress was heading the panel.

The 87-year-old top Congress leader, who is credited with steering economic reforms in the country in 1991 when he was Finance Minister, was a member of the Standing Committee on Finance from 2014 to 2019.

He was out of the panel in mid-2019 after his term ended. He was re-elected from Rajasthan and when the Parliamentary panels were reconstituted in September, Singh appeared not keen to be part of committees.

Sources said Digvijay Singh earlier resigned from the panel saying he has been on it for a long time probably making way for the former Prime Minister.