Oops! YCP Can’t Even Win PAC Post in Assembly

The crushing defeat of YSR Congress Party in the 2024 assembly elections of Andhra Pradesh in which it failed to secure even the minimum number of seats required for the ‘Opposition Status’ has handed over a huge embarrassment for YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and his supporters. As a consequence, Jagan and his 10 MLAs boycotted the assembly sessions so far and this decision received widespread flak from the public and the political circles as well.

Meanwhile, the humiliating electoral performance continues to haunt YSRCP in many ways. Besides denial of Opposition Status, the party is now set to face another embarassment in the legislative house. According to latest reports, YSRCP is going to lose the chairman post of ‘Public Accounts Committee’ which audits the government’s revenue and expenditure and examines the CAG reports.

The PAC has 12 members, with 9 members from the assembly and 3 from the council. The assembly speaker appoints the PAC chairman. Traditionally, one of representatives of the Opposition Party is nominated as the chairman of the committee. When the YSRCP was in power, TDP got the chance to nominate only one of its MLAs for the committee and current Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav was recognised as the Chairman of the PAC.

Similarly, this time YSRCP should have got the opportunity to have the Chairman of PAC from its party. Unfortunately, that is the case now because Jagan’s party won’t have any representation in the PAC given that they won only 11 seats out of the 175 in the house. So, the chairman of PAC will be from the ruling government for the first time in Andhra Pradesh assembly.

As the Chairman of PAC, Payyavula Keshav used to raise concern about government accounting and also voice his opinions on the irregularities of unaccounted money during every financial year. It is quite an embarrassment for YSRCP because they won’t be a part of the committee for the next five years.