Finally, Left MLAs attend PAC meet

Kolkata: When CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty strode in the state assembly to attend the sixth Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, the irony was unmistakable.
It was Chakraborty, the Jadavpur MLA, who was being backed for the coveted PAC chairperson's post, till chief minister Mamata Banerjee upset all calculations and chose Congress's Manas Bhuniyan for the post. The furore it caused is yet to settle down.
Chakraborty along with RSP's Biswanath Chowdhury attended the meeting for the first time. Siliguri mayor Ashok Bhattacharya, however, skipped it again. Barring Bhuniyan, no Congress MLA attended the meeting.
Interestingly, MLAs of both the Left and Congress had stayed away from the last five PAC meetings since the appointment of Bhuniyan as the PAC chairman. While the Congress had boycotted the meeting; Left Front leaders cited several reasons for their absence.
Chakraborty explained their absence had nothing to do with Bhuniyan's appointment. "We had objected to the procedure. The election of PAC chairmanship is done in accordance with the suggestions of the leader of opposition. This time it was violated. Who got the post did not really matter to us. There will still be joint campaigns against the state atrocities," Chakraborty said.
Explaining his absence from the meetings its now, he said, "I had requested if the weekly PAC meeting could be rescheduled to a weekday instead of Friday. Since both Bhuniyan and Speaker said it was not possible, I have rescheduled my programme. Chowdhury too had taken out time to attend today's meeting but Bhattacharya was unable to."
He added he wanted to record some objections against some administrative issues and that from now on he would regularly attend the PAC meeting.
Manas, who earlier in the day wrote to Sonia Gandhi on why he should remain as the PAC chairperson, (against his party's decision) welcomed the Left move. "I am happy that the Left MLAs have attended the meeting but I don't know when my beloved Congress MLAs would do so," he said. He alleged that the state Congress president and Leader of the Opposition was denigrating the Constitution by not allowing the Congress MLAs to attend.