The BJP may find it difficult to see that expelled leader Jaswant Singh is removed from the chairmanship of the prestigious Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, to which it had nominated him recently.
"After writing to Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar to make Singh the chairman of PAC, the party has done its job and now it cannot ensure his removal," Parliament sources said.
With his appointment to the post by the speaker, the role of the main opposition in the matter is over, they said adding that the speaker could replace a chairman only if he is incapacitated and not able to function.
The party cannot ask the speaker to do anything after the appointment, the sources said adding the incumbent, however, has the "full freedom" to resign voluntarily.
The sources recalled that late prime minister Chandrashekhar was the chairman of the Ethics Committee and was unwell for long but still the then speaker did not replace him.
Singh got the post after the BJP nominated him as a member of the PAC during the budget session last month. The party had ruled out former finance minister Yashwant Sinha for the job after he attacked the leadership and had resigned from all party committees. Sinha incidentally a member of the committee.
Singh's case is perhaps the first in the Lok Sabha history that the chairman of the PAC is an expelled member of the main opposition party, which by convention gets the post.
He was the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha before being elected to the Lok Sabha from Darjeeling seat in West Bengal.
The sources said the speaker could appoint an acting chairman in the event of the chairman not in a position to function because of illness.
