Kanhaiyalal Agarwal Appointed Head of Public Accounts Committee

The West Bengal Legislative Assembly Secretariat has officially appointed opposition MLA Kanhaiyalal Agarwal as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. This decision marks a change in tradition as the responsibility is being given to an opposition member. The announcement follows recent developments within the state assembly regarding committee leadership roles.

Background of the New Chairman

Kanhaiyalal Agarwal won the recent assembly election from the Islampur constituency. Following internal divisions within the Trinamool Congress, he joined the opposition faction led by Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay. The Public Accounts Committee consists of 20 members in total, which includes 14 members from the ruling party and six members from the opposition. Kanhaiyalal Agarwal is among these six opposition representatives.

Distribution of Committee Leadership

The ruling party has decided to grant the chairmanship of 10 out of the 41 assembly committees to the opposition. One of these committees will be led by ISF MLA Naushad Siddique from Bhangar, while the remaining nine committees will be chaired by MLAs from the Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay faction. According to assembly sources, while MLAs from the Kalighat Trinamool faction will serve as members of various committees, they will not hold any chairman positions.

Strong North Bengal Representation

This appointment highlights a significant shift in legislative leadership, particularly for the North Bengal region. Currently, Assembly Speaker Rathindra Basu, Chief Whip Amlan Bhaduri, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shankar Ghosh all hail from North Bengal. With Kanhaiyalal Agarwal becoming the PAC chairman, the representation of North Bengal in key assembly committees has been further strengthened. This information was reported by Hindusthan Samachar.