VIJAYAWADA: Telugu Desam’s Rajya Sabha member C.M. Ramesh was elected as member of Public Accounts Committee (PAC), with the support of the Congress and other opposition parties namely AIADMK, CPM and CPI on Monday. Mr Ramesh got 106 votes. BJP MP Bhupendra Yadav also got elected as PAC member with 69 votes.
C.M. Ramesh won his second consecutive Rajya Sabha term in 2018.
Calling this the result of opposition unity, a senior TD leader said that National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidates were way behind Ramesh in the election.
In Rajya Sabha, the NDA has 89 members, out of which BJP has 73 members. The UPA has strength of 57 members, of whom 50 members belong to the Congress.
The Telugu Desam has six members, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have four members each and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and CPM have three and five members respectively. The Samajwadi Party and Trinamul have 13 members each.
APCC chief Dr N. Raghu-veera Reddy said that he was trying to reach K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao to know what exactly had taken place. However, Telugu Desam has denied reports that Congress had voted for Telugu Desam MP C M Ramesh. “We will not agree that Congress has voted for us. It is the votes from the anti-Modi camp of BJP,” TD spokesperson Lanka Dinakar said and added that the election for PAC was meant for limited purpose and a capable man had been elected for the PAC.
However, former Chief Secretary I Y R Krishna Rao had a different observation over the development. “Telugu Desam party is primarily an anti-Congress platform. It is strange that both Congress and Telugu Desam are coming together. In a way both are responsible for the division of the state. One openly and the other party silently,” I.Y.R Krishna Rao said, and added that now the hidden understanding between TD and Congress was exposed, which could be termed as a pre-poll understanding.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is a committee of selected members of Parliament, constituted by the Parliament of India, for auditing the revenue and the expenditure of the Government of India. The PAC is formed every year with a strength of not more than 22 members, of which 15 are from the Lok Sabha, and seven from the Rajya Sabha. Kuruppassery Varkey Thomas is the current Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. He was elected for a second term of one year.
