In a departure from the parliamentary practice of allowing the opposition to head the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the ruling alliance on Monday elected CPN (Maoist Centre) lawmaker Dor Prasad Upadhyay as its chairman.

The PAC is considered one of the strongest parliamentary committees to check financial “irregularities” of the government. For this reason, the committee is usually headed by an opposition party.

Against this norm, the governing alliance of the Nepali Congress, the Maoists and the Madhesi parties fielded Upadhyay as their common candidate against Pashupati Chaulagain of the main opposition CPN-UML. Rastriya Prajatantra Party, a coalition partner, however, voted for the opposition candidate.

In the 50-member committee, Upadhyay got 23 votes against 16 of Chaulagain. Eleven members were absent during voting. Speaker Onasari Gharti administered the oath to Upadhyay later in the day.

The NC and the Maoists had reached an agreement two days ago to share the leadership of the PAC and the Impeachment Recommendation Committee. The IRC is without its chair since its formation on October 19 last year. An NC candidate will be elected as the IRC chair.

The PAC seat was vacant after Maoist Centre leader Janardan Sharma resigned on August 12, after party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal was appointed the prime minister, arguing that it would be unfair for a ruling party MP to lead the committee.

According to Maoist Chief Whip Tek Bahadur Basnet, his party was ready to give the leadership to the UML if the latter had agreed to relinquish the leadership of one committee.

Among the 13 thematic committees of Parliament, the NC and the UML lead four each while the Maoist Centre heads two.

“There would have been only one committee under us if we had left the PAC for the UML,” he told the Post.

He presented the cases of Ram Krishna Yadav of the NC and Sharma of the Maoist Centre leading the position even when their parties were in government.