Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury resigns as Bengal Congress chief
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has stepped down from his role as the chief of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee. His resignation followed a meeting to discuss the party's disappointing performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Although there is no official confirmation from Congress leadership about acceptance of his resignation, Chowdhury stated, "Since Mallikarjun Kharge became the Congress's national president, there was no state president. Now when the full-time President is appointed you will all come to know that."
Chowdhury's resignation follows meeting with Mamata Banerjee
The surprise announcement also came a day after P Chidambaram, the Congress's Rajya Sabha member and former Union Finance Minister, had a 35-minute meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat, Nabanna. Chowdhury, a five-time Lok Sabha MP from Murshidabad's Baharampur constituency, was defeated in the recent elections by the Trinamool Congress's celebrity candidate and former Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan.
Chowdhury's differences with party high command
For some time now, reports have been circulating about Chowdhury's disagreements with the party's high command over the former's "sour" relationship with the TMC. In fact, Banerjee and her political heir apparent, Abhishek Banerjee, have blamed Chowdhury for the failure of negotiations between the TMC and Congress to reach an election agreement and share Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. They had also criticized him for steering the Congress to an electoral understanding with the CPI(M).
Potential successor for Chowdhury's position
In addition to the tension with the TMC, his differences with Kharge also surfaced during the Lok Sabha polls after Chowdhury questioned Banerjee's loyalty to the Congress-led opposition bloc. According to insiders within the Bengal Congress, Isha Khan Chowdhury, the Congress's lone Lok Sabha MP from Bengal now, is one of the frontrunners for Chowdhury's position in the party's Bengal unit.
