Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s five-point suggestion to strengthen the party’s ‘dwindling’ organisation in the State has not only been rubbished by some senior party leaders, but has also been dubbed ‘political gimmickry’.
A party leader, Kanak Debnath, who has been with the Congress for more than three decades, told The Hindu here on Sunday, “By imposing his so-called suggestions on party workers, Mr. Chowdhury has proved he wants to run (PCC) in a dictatorial manner.” He even compared the party chief with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
In the backdrop of the recently-concluded PCC meeting, where Mr. Debnath was allegedly assaulted by other senior leaders, known to be close to Mr. Chowdhury, such allegations by State leaders against him have once again brought the party’s infighting into focus.
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Earlier this week, Mr. Chowdhury offered a five-point suggestion that includes formation of booth-level committees across the State to counter the TMC’s terror tactics and to strengthen the party’s base. He urged party leaders to participate in local elections like cooperative bodies as well as students’ union elections. In order to counter the notion that in the Congress, candidates are imposed on regional workers by the leadership, he declared that local party leaders would nominate the party candidate for Assembly and rural polls. Finally, he emphasised the need to step up campaign against the BJP’s action in the State and at the Centre. Mr. Debnath criticised Mr. Chowdhury for failing to come up with interim committees to supervise the party activities in the State, and said if Mr. Chowdhury was so eager to ‘revive Congress’ electoral fortune’ in the State, why hadn’t not he taken such a ‘basic’ step. He claimed that most of the senior State leaders had told him that they were just waiting to see whether they would be part of the new PCC committees and if not, they would rebel against the State leadership.
Punching holes in Mr. Chowdhury’s argument of setting up booth-level committees, Mr. Debnath said such committees could not be formed when the grassroots-level workers ‘had lost faith in the State leadership’.
Questioning Mr. Chowdhury’s claim that such committees would make the party more democratic, the senior leader asked, “If he wants to be democratic then why didn’t he hold discussions with booth-level workers before taking the decision.” He accused the State Congress president of failing to revamp the party’s campaign strategy in face of the tech-savvy and social media-based campaigning of the TMC and the BJP.
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Another senior Congress leader expressed doubts on Mr. Chowdhury’s methods to make the party’s functioning more democratic, and said, “If such decisions were taken and executed in a democratic manner, it would be fruitful for the party.” Senior Congress leader Pradeep Ghosh, who has recently announced joining the BJP, mocked Mr. Adhir’s suggestions to strengthen the party’s organisation in West Bengal as a ‘mere spark that would not make any difference to a party whose Central and State leadership are total failures’.