After Rahul 'no', "fighter" Adhir named Cong LS leader

Congress on Tuesday named firebrand leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as its leader in the Lok Sabha after party president Rahul Gandhi refused to take up the key post in Parliament.

Chowdhury, a five-term member from Berhampore in West Bengal, succeeds Mallikarjun Kharge, who lost the Lok Sabha election from Gulbarga.

Seven-term Lok Sabha member from Kerala Kodikunnil Suresh has been appointed as the Chief Whip of the party in the lower house.

The appointments were cleared at a meeting of top party leaders on Tuesday morning convened by Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the Congress Party in Parliament. Besides Rahul, senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Suresh and Chowdhury attended the meeting.

“I have been given this responsibility. I am a foot soldier of the party,” Chowdhury told reporters here.

The names of senior leaders Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor were also being talked about as leaders of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, but the party chose Chowdhury given his street-fighter approach which would come handy while dealing with a stronger BJP.

Chowdhury will get to sit on committees for making key appointments such as that of the CBI Director, the Lokpal and the Central Vigilance Commissioner.

In the afternoon session of the Lok Sabha, Chowdhury had taken his designated seat in the house next to that reserved for the Deputy Speaker. Sonia Gandhi introduced Chowdhury as the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha.

As members from West Bengal took oath, Chowdhury was seen introducing members – mostly Trinamool and BJP – to Sonia.

“I love football,” Sonia quipped when Chowdhury introduced footballer-turned-parliamentarian Prasun Banerjee of the Trinamool.

Several Congress leaders were keen to see Rahul take a leadership role in the Lok Sabha, but he is learnt to be seeing himself more as a campaigner for the party, moving away from organisational responsibilities.

After the Congress' rout in the Lok Sabha elections, Rahul had offered to quit as party president. However, the Congress Working Committee, the top decision making body of the party, declined the resignation and gave him a free hand to restructure the party.