Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has officially stepped down as president of the West Bengal Congress committee. AICC general secretary in charge of the state Ghulam Ahmad Mir confirmed the same on Tuesday morning. He added that the process to appoint a new chief of the state unit is on.
According to reports, Chowdhury resigned after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge met senior functionaries from West Bengal in Delhi on Monday to select the next state president.
Notably, Chowdhury won Murshidabad district’s s seat five times since 1999. He was defeated in the recent Lok Sabha election by former Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan fielded by Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee.
On Tuesday, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury gave his first reaction after his resignation and spoke about a rift in his relationship with the Congress high command. He criticized the party’s national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Bengal minder Ghulam Ahmad Mir for the way they treated him during his tenure as the departing chief of the state unit.
He said he was unaware of the high command’s decision to accept a resignation he had submitted till he was referred to as the “former” Pradesh Congress Committee president at a meeting on Monday.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claims that he resigned as the party's West Bengal Chief after the Lok Sabha polls but he wasn't informed whether or not the resignation was accepted.
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) July 31, 2024
A meeting had been called under my presidency but during the meeting, Ghulam Ali Mir while addressing… pic.twitter.com/ENrmoA6WpH
“I had offered my resignation to Khargeji (after the June 4 results), to which he had asked me to come to Delhi for a discussion. Accordingly, I had gone to attend the meeting,” said Chowdhury.
“There, I saw I was being referred to as the former president. I was not even aware my resignation was accepted,” added the former MP, whose resistance to any truck with Mamata Banerjee in Bengal was instrumental in her decision to go it alone in the state.
Slamming the Congress’s top leadership for removing him from his position without prior intimation, Chowdhury said, “The day Mallikarjun Kharge became the party president, all other posts of the party in the country became temporary, according to the Constitution of the party. Even my post became temporary…While the election was underway, Mallikarjun Kharge said on television that if necessary I would be kept out, which made me upset.”
Meanwhile, reacting to Chowdhury’s removal as the WB Pradesh Congress Committee president, TMC MP Sagarika Ghose said, “Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has insulted our leader Mamata Banerjee and our party many times. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is not the Congress, we always believed that he’s a BJP front.”
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury resigns as West Bengal Congress Chief; As per sources:-
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) July 31, 2024
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Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has insulted our leader Mamata Banerjee & our… pic.twitter.com/8UtQDkLd9O
Notably, during the Lok Sabha elections, even when the Congress and TMC were in the midst of alliance talks, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury continued to criticize Mamata Banerjee. Later, the TMC called off the talks, blaming Chowdhury for the decision.
Mamata Banerjee’s party contested the elections alone and scored a landslide victory in the state.
