Pradip Bhattacharya was on Friday appointed as the interim president of the West Bengal Congress while three-time MLA Mohammad Sohrab has been chosen to lead the party in the state Assembly.
Bhattacharya, the state unit chief of INTUC, and Sohrab succeed Manas Bhuniya and Abu Hena respectively. Bhuniya and Hena have been appointed ministers in the West Bengal government in which Congress is a junior partner of Trinamool Congress.
“Congress president Sonia Gandhi has accepted the resignations of Bhuniya and Hena from the post of PCC chief and CLP leader respectively,” Shakeel Ahmad, CWC member and incharge of party affairs in West Bengal, told reporters here.
Ahmad said that Bhattacharya has been asked to lead the Pradesh Congress Committee till the appointment of a full-fledged president.
Bhattacharya had also functioned as working president of the PCC earlier.
The new Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Sohrab is an MLA from Jangipur which falls in the parliamentary constituency of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Among other appointments, Ravindranath Chatterjee as been made deputy leader of CLP while Asit Mal has been made chief whip in the state Assembly.
Ajay De has been appointed as CLP secretary and Nepal Mahta will be the treasurer.
Asked why a full-fledged PCC chief has not been named, Ahmad said the appointment would be made after deliberation within the party.