Serious disaffection has surfaced in the state Congress only weeks after the appointment of Manas Bhunia as the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) president. Over half a dozen former Congress district presidents left for Delhi to lodge their protest over their unceremonious removal. “We will meet Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi and apprise them of our grievances,” former Nadia district president Shankar Singh said.
Last week in a dramatic reshuffle, over a dozen district Congress presidents were removed. Prominent among them were presidents from Nadia Shankar Singh, North 24 Parganas Debi Ghosal, South 24 Parganas Biplab Sarkar, Darjeeling Shankar Malakar, East Midnapore Manik Bhowmik besides Nirbed Roy, Pradip Ghosh and Pranab Bose from Kolkata district.
AICC general secretary in charge of Pradesh Congress Committee (organisation) Virendra Kataria had announced their removal on July 27 with Mr Bhunia by his side. The sacked district Congress chiefs are up in arms against the new WBPCC chief. “At a time when party’s organisational elections are to be held, the decision to remove so many district presidents is rather puzzling. Mr Bhunia’s statement that he had no linking of our removal is not convincing,” Mr Singh said.
He also pointed out that those who had been removed had been instrumental in inducting large number of new members in the Congress. “In the recent membership drive 45,000 members were made in Nadia and nearly a lakh in North 24 Parganas. Our supporters are disappointed. They are asking us if we were punished because we worked hard to increase the party’s strength,” he added.
Mr Singh and others have also voiced their dissatisfaction over the manner in which Mr Bhunia was appointed. “A WBPCC president is either elected or chosen through consensus. In Mr Bhunia’s case, neither process was followed: he was just nominated,” Mr Singh added.
Upon his appointment, Mr Bhunia had said that his first priority would be to strengthen the Congress-Trinamul Congress alliance. Political circles were abuzz with the speculation that he was made WBPCC president because of his pro-Mamata stand. Ironically, after the removal of the district presidents, it was said that they paid the price of being Mamata-baiters. Rejecting the charge, the former Nadia Congress president said, “It is not correct that we were anti-alliance or anti-Mamata. We merely articulating the party line when we demanded alliance with honour.”