Kolkata, Oct 5 (IANS): As Trinamool Congress launched a scathing attack against the Centre following the replacement of its MP Sudip Bandopadhyay as the chairman of the Parliamentary Panel on food and consumer affairs with BJP's Locket Chatterjee, West Bengal BJP hit back, claiming that the state's ruling party has no moral right to raise questions in the matter.
Countering criticisms in the matter, leader of the opposition party in West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Wednesday claimed that had Trinamool been so high in moral grounds in the matter, they would not have played a dirty game with the post of the chairman of the public accounts committee of the state assembly, a chair which by convention is always being held by an MLA from the opposition bench.
The speaker of West Bengal assembly, Biman Bandopadhyay, nominated Mukul Roy and then Krishna Kalyani in that chair. Both Roy and Kalyani were elected as BJP legislators in the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls, but soon after the polls both joined Trinamool Congress.
Although, BJP's legislative team in state assembly, led by Adhikari fought long legal battle demanding disqualification of the two as MLAs under Anti-Defection Law, both officially continued as BJP legislators as per state assembly records and by virtue of that both were nominated in the chair of public accounts committee chairman one after another.
"After all these dirty games, Trinamool Congress has no right to speak on the Parliamentary panel reshuffle," he said.
Soon after the announcement in the reshuffles of Parliamentary Panel chairmen post was announced, the Trinamool Congress leader in Rajya Sabha, Derek O'Brien claimed in a statement that it is unfortunate that Trinamool Congress, despite being the third largest party and the second largest opposition party in the Parliament, now does not get a single chairmanship.
"The largest opposition party loses two crucial chairmanships of Standing Committees. This is the stark reality of New India," his statement read.
Countering that statement, BJP leader Rabindranath Maiti said that reshuffle in Parliamentary Panel chairman posts cannot be strictly compared with what ruling Trinamool Congress has done as regards to the post of chairman of the public accounts committee of the state assembly.
"They have placed turncoat MLAs in that chair but projecting them as BJP legislators going beyond all legislative decorum. They did the same thing between 2011 and 2021, when first the Left Front and then Congress were the principal opposition parties in the state assembly. Such words of high moral grounds do not suit Trinamool Congress at least," he said.