Mukul Roy appointed PAC chairman in Bengal assembly

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 9

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday got senior leader Mukul Roy—who recently returned to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) after winning the assembly polls on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket—appointed as chairperson of Public Accounts Committee in the Assembly.

The post is normally given to the opposition. Roy fulfills this pre-condition as he is officially a BJP legislator. Despite returning back to the TMC fold, he did not resign as an MLA, ignoring repeated demands made by the saffron party.

BJP MLAs, led by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, staged a walkout in the Assembly, to protest the appointment.

Roy, MLA from Krishnanagar Uttar, re-joined the TMC last month in the presence of the party supremo Mamata Banerjee and her political successor Abhishek Banerjee, MP.

A founding member of TMC, Mukul had left the party in November 2017 to join BJP.

The TMC leader was elected as a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in June. Adhikari said that an opposition MLA was usually appointed as the PAC chairman. TMC misused that rule to appoint Roy as its chairman, he said.