It is responsible for considering the audit reports prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

As per the established tradition, a member of the opposition party heads the PAC.

But with the stinging indictments made by the CAG in its report over the large-scale financial irregularities committed in the tenure of the Samajwadi Party government, the party has developed cold feet.

Already two meetings were held in the past two months to elect the new chairman of the PAC but they remained inconclusive. The PAC will be meeting for the third time on February 26 for the election.

Sources in the Samajwadi Party said that it is not keen to see the elections held on such an early date.

Moreover, the party is divided over who will lead the PAC. At present the names of the two senior SP leaders making rounds for the post are Naresh Agarwal and Ambika Chowdhary — both former ministers in the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government.

The CAG report for the 2006-07 financial year when Yadav was heading the government has pointed at financial irregularities relating to Samajwadi Party’s most ambitious programme— Kanya Vidya Dhan Yojna.