New Delhi: Former Union Minister and senior
BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi is likely to become the next
Chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee while Yashwant Sinha will replace him as head of the Standing
Committee on Finance, BJP sources said.
Joshi is likely to replace Gopinath Munde, who became PAC
Chairperson on January 1 when expelled BJP MP Jaswant Singh
resigned from the post in December. Munde was made PAC
Chairman for the remaining period of the financial year
2009-10 and his term ends on March 31.
The post of PAC Chairman, which goes to the main
Opposition as per convention, was in the news in September
last when Singh refused BJP`s request to step down.
Singh was summarily expelled on August 19, 2009 at the
BJP Chintan Baithak (brainstorming session) in Shimla for
authoring a book on M A Jinnah in which he called the
Pakistan-founder secular and held Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel responsible for partition of the country.
Yashwant Sinha, who is also a member of PAC, is likely
to replace Joshi as Chairman of Standing Committee on Finance.
This should placate the former finance minister as he was
unhappy till now since the party had denied him Chairmanship
of any Standing Committee.
Sushma Swaraj, who was then Deputy Leader of BJP in Lok
Sabha, also became head of Standing Committee on External
Affairs which could have gone to Sinha.
BJP has three seats in the PAC. Last year, after the
15th Lok Sabha was constituted, Singh, Sinha and Munde were
made members of PAC by the party.
-PTI
