Kolkata: The seat of the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the West Bengal Assembly has been conventionally held by a member of the opposition party. But, after the 2016 Assembly elections, the ruling Trinamool Congress departed from the convention and nominated Manas Bhuniya, a Congress turncoat at that time, to the post. This time, the party with its brute majority wants to have Mukul Roy as the chairman of the committee. Roy, though an elected BJP legislator of the assembly, has already joined Trinamool.
Naturally, Roy’s political fate in Trinamool Congress is currently under the scanner of political observers. On one hand, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari is hell-bent on cancelling Roy’s membership from the house under the anti-defection law. On the other hand, Trinamool leadership is reportedly trying to push Roy’s nomination as the PAC chairman. In that case, the episode of Bhuniya will have a re-run, where an individual who is officially an opposition MLA but already switched camps, will become the PAC chairman.
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According to political observers, although the convention had been that the chair of the PAC chairman is being held by an opposition MLA, there is no rule in this regard and the speaker of the house has full authority to nominate anyone for the chair. “At least there is no written rule in this regard. This is just a convention. Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury is currently the chairman of Lok Sabha’s PAC. However, if BJP had disagreed with this trend, then Congress will have nothing to say from the legal angle. The same logic is applicable for the chair of West Bengal Assembly’s PAC chairman,” said a city-based political analyst.
In 2016, though Congress was the principal opposition party in the state, they proposed Left legislative leader, Dr Sujan Chakraborty as the PAC chairman. However, the speaker Biman Bandopadhyay bypassed the proposal by exercising his power and proposed Bhuniya’s name as the PAC chairman. The Congress legislative party then boycotted Bhuniya who was officially a Congress legislator till then. Soon after that, he joined Trinamool Congress.
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Dr Sujan Chakraborty thinks that the ruling party is unnecessarily creating a controversy over the issue of PAC chairman. “It shows the lack of transparency in the ruling party. The state government is surely trying to hide something. The earlier Left Front government always allowed an opposition MLA as the PAC chairman so that the state government can become aware of its mistake. But this state government is walking in the opposite direction,” he said.
Senior Congress leader and the former leader of opposition in West Bengal assembly, Abdul Mannan said if Mukul Roy is made the PAC chairman this time, he will have to file nomination for that. “But how will he be able to file a nomination as a BJP legislator, when he has joined Trinamool Congress officially. But again everything is possible for the current ruler in the state, which does not care for any norms or convention. But the matter can take a legal turn if Roy is made the PAC chairman. A strong anti-defection law is necessary to bring an end to such controversies,” he said.
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