By Our Reporter dor_prasadGoing  against  the established practice of granting the post of the chairman of the Public Account Committee of the parliament to the opposition party, the ruling coalition of the Maoist Centre and NC retained the post by electing lawmaker Dor Prasad Upadhyaya of the Maoist Centre to the post. Upadhyaya of Kapivastu was elected president of the Public Account Committee by garnering 23 votes. His rival  Pashupati Chaulagainof the CPN-UML got 16 votes in the election held for the post in the Committee Monday. Nine members on the 50-member committee however abstained. The total number of voters was 49 as the senior –most member on the committee Sarbendra Nath Shukla could not vote as per the committee's work procedure. The post had been lying vacant since six months after the then committee president Janardan Sharma was appointed the Energy Minister in the incumbent government. Upadhyaya was the common candidate from the ruling parties including the Nepali Congress and the CPN (Maoist Centre), among other parties.