Cong infighting turns ugly as some leaders demand Adhir ouster

The infighting in state Congress has once again come out in the open after some leaders demanded either suspension or removal of Pradesh Congress Committee president Adhir Chowdhury for tarnishing the image of the party.

Kanak Debnath, one of the general secretaries said a delegation would go to Delhi and meet Rahul Gandhi to press the demand of Chowdhury’s ouster. He said Chowdhury had miserably failed to lead the party. Leaders and workers in Murshidabad are joining Trinamool Congress and he had not done anything to prevent them, except issue a statement.

“It clearly shows that the workers and leaders in Murshidabad which is believed to be his stronghold have lost faith in him. Under such a situation he should be either sacked or suspended”.

Debnath alleged that over the past two months, the party’s image had been lowered by Chowdhury because of constant criticism of Manas Bhunia after he became the chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

“The party is much more important than Bhunia. In the past two months his steps have lowered the image of the party. He behaved in a way as if Bhunia was bigger than the party,” said Debnath.

He added in the past two months, no movements had been organised by the party and no meetings were held to stop the flight of party workers and leaders over to Trinamool.

“The only issue that had been discussed was whether Bhunia was justified in becoming the chairman of PAC or not.” It may be mentioned that political experts had already predicted that as Chowdhury had lost his grip over Murshidabad and his counter lobby would become active and demand his ouster.

Meanwhile, the AICC reportedly issued a show cause notice to Bhunia asking him why action would not be taken against him for his refusal to relinquish the post of the chairman of PAC. Senior Congress leader AK Anthony had issued the show cause. When contacted, Bhunia said he had not received any letter from AICC and would give reply to the show-cause notice. 

Bhunia had been given 15 days to give a reply.