Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury steps down as Bengal Congress chief

Kolkata: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, on Friday announced his resignation from the chair of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee.

He made this announcement after a meeting of the state unit of the Congress committee on Friday afternoon, which was convened to review the reasons behind the poor performance of the party in West Bengal in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections.

However, no official confirmation has come from the Congress leadership on whether his resignation has been accepted or not.

Confirming his resignation, Chowdhury claimed that he was just President of the state unit of the Congress.

“Since the time Mallikarjun Kharge became the Congress’ National President, there was no state President. Now when the full-time President will be appointed you will all come to know that,” said Chowdhury.

Incidentally, he made this announcement just a day after the Congress’ Rajya Sabha member and former Union finance minister, P Chidambaram, dropped in at the state secretariat Nabanna and had a 35-minute-long meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Chowdhury, a five-time party Lok Sabha member from Baharampur constituency in Murshidabad District, this time got defeated by the Trinamool Congress’ celebrity candidate and former Indian cricket team player Yusuf Pathan.

Chowdhury’s differences with the party high command had been surfacing for quite some time over the issue of the Congress’ relationship with the Trinamool.

Chowdhury, known for his die-hard anti- Trinamool Congress stand, had always been vocal about his views on having an electoral understanding with the CPI(M)-led Left Front.

In fact, his differences with Kharge also surfaced in the midst of the Lok Sabha polls.

Following the announcement of his resignation, speculations have started surfacing on his successor.

State Congress insiders said that the current party Lok Sabha member from Maldaha- Dakshin, Isha Khan Chowdhury, the only party Lok Sabha member from West Bengal now, is one of the frontrunners for the top job in the state unit of the party.

–IANS