Kolkata, 04 August (H.S.) : The West Bengal Assembly Secretariat has put an end to speculation by finalising the appointment of opposition MLA Kanhaiyalal Agrawal as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the State Assembly. Assembly sources confirmed on Tuesday that Agrawal, who belongs to the opposition camp led by Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay, will head the key financial oversight committee.

Agrawal was elected to the Assembly from the Islampur constituency in the recent state elections. He later joined the Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay-led opposition faction following an internal split within the Trinamool Congress.

The Public Accounts Committee comprises 20 members, including 14 from the ruling BJP and six from the opposition, with Agrawal being one of the opposition representatives.

The ruling BJP has decided to allocate the chairmanship of 10 out of the Assembly's 41 committees to the opposition. Among them, ISF MLA Naushad Siddique from Bhangar will chair one committee, while the remaining nine committees will be headed by MLAs from the Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay camp. Assembly sources said that although legislators belonging to the Kalighat faction of the Trinamool Congress will be included as committee members, none of them will be appointed as committee chairpersons.

Political observers believe the decision to appoint Agrawal, rather than an opposition MLA who later joined the BJP, reflects a new political approach and signals evolving equations within the Assembly.

The appointment also reinforces the growing representation of North Bengal in the state legislature's key constitutional positions. Assembly Speaker Rathindra Basu, Chief Whip Amlan Bhaduri, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shankar Ghosh, and now PAC Chairman-designate Kanhaiyalal Agrawal all hail from the region.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh