Obdurate Public accounts Committee (PAC) chairman of West Bengal Assembly Manas Bhunia claimed on Wednesday that he will be continuing with the post. “I was given the post after discussing with the party high command,” Bhunia said after meeting AICC general secretary C P Joshi at the party head quarters in the national capital.
The state president of Congress Adhir Ranjan Choudhury and another senior leader of the party Abdul Mannan were present in the meeting.
AICC leaders had decided to convene a meeting in New Delhi to resolve the logjam. While the meeting was going on, the state Congress president and leader of the Opposition Adhir Chowdhury, and Congress MLA Abdul Mannan were being questioned along with Bhunia, sources.
However, Mannan and Choudhury denied the fact after the meeting. They claimed that the top brass is yet to suggest and after getting a formal letter from them, the state leadership will be taking action Bhunia.
Bhunia was appointed the Public accounts Committee (PAC) chairman amid opposition by his own party, which wanted to offer the post to Sujan Chakraborty. His name was announced as the chairman by Speaker Biman Banerjee, who later told mediapersons that he had followed the convention by offering the post to the main Opposition.
While a miffed state Congress went on to inform the party high command of Bhunia’s “anti-party” activity, the Sabang MLA claimed he was never “officially informed about the party’s stand."
On the contrary, Bhunia alleged that Chowdhury and Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan were "conspiring" against him and humiliating him. He urged Congress state chief Adhir Chowdhury to allow him to serve as PAC for one year in the face of repeated calls by party leaders and legislators to step down.
The senior Congress leader wondered what wrong he had done by accepting the post, citing the rule book of the Assembly.
Bhunia also claimed that Mannan had deliberately misguided the party and that he and Adhir were trying to project him as an "anti-party" activist.