Breaking his silence over reports of his removal as the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Monday said none from the party has the change to him.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Chowdhury, however, said he was a footsoldier of the party and would follow the leadership’s instructions.
“I have no information about it as none from the party has informed me so far,” Mr. Chowdhury, a five-term Lok Sabha MP, told The Hindu over phone from his constituency, Berhampur in West Bengal.
“Whatever responsibility is given to me by leadership, it becomes my dharma [duty] to carry on,” he added.
On Sunday, reacting to a report that Mr. Chowdhury was being removed as Lok Sabha leader, official sources of the party called it “premature and unfounded”.
However, there was no categorical denial as Mr. Chowdhury is likely to lose one of his posts: either his position as the West Bengal Congress chief or Lok Sabha leader. And it will be timed with other changes in the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
After the death of AICC in-charge Rajeev Satav, the Congress high command needs to appoint a new in-charge for Gujarat that will have elections at the end of 2022; find a replacement for Jitin Prasada who was Congress’ Bengal in-charge; accommodate Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot as well as rehabilitate Ramesh Chennithala who was replaced as Kerala Assembly’s Leader of the Opposition.
The party is also struggling to resolve the festering factionalism in several States: from the most visible in Punjab to Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh to Haryana now.
On Friday, several lawmakers believed to be close to former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda met general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal regarding organisational changes.
After disbanding the district Congress committees in Haryana six years ago, the party is once again reconstituting them, leading to open display of groupism.
Last week, 19 lawmakers from Mr. Hooda’s camp met AICC in-charge of the State Vivek Bansal where they reportedly sought a change in Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) leadership, including Kumari Selja. Ms. Selja, however, downplayed such reports and asserted that there was “nothing wrong in MLAs meeting their State in-charge”.
