The newly appointed President of the West Bengal Congress, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury
NEW DELHI: Since a section of Congressional leaders expressed reservations about the party’s leadership last month, loyalists are being rewarded one after another.
In the latest development, the Acting President of Congress Sonia Gandhi appointed top party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as head of the West Bengal Pradesh Congressional Committee (WBPCC) on 9 September.
Chowdhury is considered a loyalist of the Nehru-Gandhi family. He is already the leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha.
With the new appointment, Chowdhury would occupy two crucial positions, which is not very common in the Congress party.
The two recent examples of a congressional leader occupying dual positions are Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot.
Nath was the Prime Minister of Madhya Pradesh and the chairman of the state unit of Congress. The then general secretary of Congress, Jyotiraditya Scindia, had even complained to the party leadership about Nath holding two seats. It was one of the reasons why Scindia became disillusioned with the party leadership and left it to join the BJP. After the fall of his government in March, Nath remains only the president of the state.
Similarly, Pilot was Senior Deputy Minister and Chairman of the Rajasthan Congress. After he rebelled along with 18 members of the law in July, he was fired from both positions. Although he has asked for a truce with the party leadership, he still has no responsibility.
In the same way, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury now occupies two crucial positions. In fact, he would be the only Congressional leader today to hold a crucial position at the central level and another in the state.
Chowdhury is already the chairman of the public accounts committee.
He fills the vacancy as president of the WBPCC created by the death of Somen Mitra on July 30. He already served as President of the WBPCC between February 2014 and September 2018.
Chowdhury’s appointment is significant because it comes just one year before the assembly elections in West Bengal.
The appointment of a loyalist to the Nehru-Gandhi family in Chowdhury is the third case after two similar moves by the high command of Congress.
Before the highest decision-making body of Congress: Congressional Working Committee (CWC) – last meeting on August 24, 23 senior party leaders had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi demanding “effective, full-time leadership” that is “visible” and “active” on the field.
Among the signatories of the letter is the leader of the opposition in Rajya sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, party deputies and former Union ministers Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor; Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha; AICC officials and members of the CWC, including Mukul Wasnik and Jitin Prasada; former heads of the PCC Raj babbar (TOP), Arvinder Singh Lovely (Delhi) and Kaul Singh Thakur (Himachal Pradesh); former Chief Ministers and Union Ministers, including Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Rajender Kaur Bhattal, M Veerappa Moily, Prithviraj Chavan, PJ Kurian, Renuka Chowdhury and Milind Deora.
A few days after the CWC meeting, Sonia Gandhi made some appointments to party officials in both houses of Parliament, apparently promoting the loyalists.
In the Lok Sabha, Kaliabor MP Gaurav Gogoi from Assam was appointed deputy leader of the house, while Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu from Punjab was named one of the whips.
While Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is the congressional leader in the lower house, K Suresh is the main whip and Virudhunagar Maniackam Tagore MP from Tamil Nadu is a whip. A committee made up of these five leaders has been formed to watch over the floor management.
Similarly, another five-member committee was formed in Rajya Sabha.
Previously, the leader of the opposition, Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, and the deputy leader of the opposition, in addition to the head whip, Bhubaneswar Kalita, took care of the floor management. After Kalita left the party last year, the position was vacant.
Jairam Ramesh has been appointed the new whip boss of the upper house. Congressional treasurer Ahmed Patel and general secretary (organization) KC Venugopal have been appointed as two additional committee members.
Loyalists are preferred to dissenters in appointments made after the last CWC meeting.
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