Trinamool Congress MLA from the rebel camp, Kanaia Lal Agarwal, was appointed chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday (August 4, 2026). 

Mr. Agarwal is part of the Ritabrata Banerjee camp of Trinamool. He won the 2026 Assembly elections from the Uttar Dinajpur constituency seat with a Trinamool ticket. 

After the appointment was announced, Mr. Banerjee who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, said that the Opposition has secured the chairman position for 10 standing committees. “For PAC, Kanaia Lal Agarwal is the chairman; other than that, Firhad Hakim, Biplab Mitra, Mohammad Gulab Rabbani, Samar Mukherjee and Ashok Deb are also part of the PAC,” Mr. Banerjee said. 

Mr. Agarwal’s appointment assumes importance because of his shifting political allegiance. In 2016, he won the Assembly elections with a Congress ticket, and in 2026 with a Trinamool ticket. But was quick to shift his loyalty to the rebel Trinamool camp after the party lost to the Bharatiya Janta Party on May 4. 

Traditionally, the PAC chairman has always been selected from the Opposition party and plays a key role in overseeing the government’s expenditure and scrutinising audit reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). This is one of the legislators‘ most important financial overseeing panels and remains one of the most prestigious. 

The LoP further added that this tradition of appointing an opposition leader as the PAC chairman was not honoured in the past and now it has been set right. 

During the Mamata Banerjee government in 2021, she appointed Mukul Roy as the PAC chairman once he came back to the Trinamool after his stint with the Bharatiya Janata Party. He had won the last election on a BJP ticket; however, he shifted back to his old bastion soon after the polls. 

The tradition of appointing an Opposition leader in this position was broken during this tenure, leading to much debate in the House. BJP leaders had even called for Mr Roy to be disqualified. But Ms Banerjee publicly voiced her support for Mr. Roy and cleared up his path for the PAC chairman position.