Mukul Roy’s ghar wapasi to Trinamool Congress without resigning as an MLA, and now his appointment as the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has left opposition BJP fuming. Yesterday, eight BJP MLAs resigned as heads of various house panels protesting against Roy’s appointment. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari led the MLAs delegation to the Raj Bhavan where he met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and sought his intervention in the issue. Notably, the PAC chief post has been conventionally reserved for the opposition party.
During the meeting, the BJP MLAs told the governor that the TMC violated the well-established convention of appointing an Opposition MLA as the PAC chief. The PAC chairperson audits the government’s accounts. Adhikari reportedly also informed that Roy’s name was not on the list of six MLAs that the BJP had submitted for the panel’s chief post.
Adhikari later said that since Roy had joined the ruling TMC, he must not be considered a member of the Opposition party.
The LoP alleged that the ruling party does not want the Opposition to know about the discrepancies in the accounts and therefore selected someone from their party.
“A Delegation of opposition MLAs led by the Leader of Opposition #WBLA Shri Suvendu Adhikari called on WB Governor Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar at Raj Bhawan Kolkata today (13th July) at 4 PM. Leader of Opposition submitted a representation as regards irregularities relatable to PAC Chairman,” said the Governor’s office in a tweet.
https://twitter.com/jdhankhar1/status/1414911065779965953
https://twitter.com/jdhankhar1/status/1414913598309081092
“As your Excellency is aware, since 1967, the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament has been from the Opposition, usually the Leader of Opposition or chosen by the Opposition party. Similar is the practice in other Legislature,” reads the memorandum submitted by the opposition MLAs.