Mukul Roy takes charge as West Bengal assembly's Public Accounts Committee chairman

Legislator Mukul Roy, who has switched over to the ruling Trinamool Congress after winning the West Bengal election on a BJP ticket, on Friday took charge as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman of the state assembly.

Roy, officially a BJP MLA, was appointed the PAC chairman on July 9. Objecting to the appointment, eight saffron party legislators on Tuesday resigned as heads of various assembly panels.

The BJP has said that as per norms, an opposition MLA is appointed as the PAC chairman and the TMC misused that rule.

The assembly Speaker's office announced new names of chairmen of the eight committees on Friday. All of them are TMC MLAs.

Roy, the MLA of Krishnagar Uttar seat, was at the office for over half an hour after taking over his new responsibility.

Also Read | Suvendu Adhikari attends hearing on Mukul Roy's disqualification plea, says BJP may move court

Asked to comment on reports that BJP is planning to move court seeking his disqualification as an MLA, he told reporters: "Anyone can go anywhere he wants."

Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay earlier said that there was no impropriety in the appointment of Roy as the PAC chairman.

He had also said as per norms, the chairmanship of eight standing panels went to opposition BJP MLAs but if they resigned, the posts will automatically go to the next seniormost members of the House.

Accordingly, TMC legislators Madan Mitra, Sudipto Roy, Tapan Dasgupta, Rukbanur Rahman, Ashok Chattopadhyay and Abdul Khaled Mollah and two others were appointed as chairmen of various committees on Friday.

They took the place of BJP's Manoj Tigga, Mihir Goswami, Bisnuprasad Sharma, Nikhilranjan Dey, Dipak Barman and Krishna Kalyani and two others.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee said that the eight new committee chairmen will take charge on July 26.