BJP MLAs quit panels in protest as Mukul Roy gets PAC chief’s post

KOLKATA: Leader of opposition in Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday led BJP MLAs to Raj Bhavan seeking the governor’s intervention against the speaker’s decision to appoint Mukul Roy as Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman even as party MLAs resigned in protest from the chairman post of eight assembly standing committees offered to them.
A BJP legislature team will leave for Delhi to submit the same memorandum to the President and the Lok Sabha speaker. Roy, who won the assembly election on a BJP ticket, was made PAC chairman a few weeks after he returned to TMC. By convention, the post goes to an opposition member.
“The speaker has flouted the rules and procedures of conduct of business in the Bengal assembly. He could have chosen anyone from the six names BJP had provided to him for PAC chairman’s post. We recommended renowned economist Ashok Lahiri’s name. But he tagged Mukul Roy’s name as one from BJP when we hadn’t sent his name,” Adhikari said.