Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury denies quitting as Bengal Congress president

Kolkata: Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday rubbished reports that he has resigned as the president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee.

He claimed that following the Congress' constitution, presidents of all state units have become temporary chiefs after the election of the party's national president Mallikarjun Kharge.

"I am the provisional president of the state Congress. Since the day Mallikarjun Kharge became the All India president, no other state in India has had a president," Chowdhury said.

He said it is surprising that the media were cooking up stories that he had resigned.

According to the organisational structure of the Congress, when the All India President changes, it's he who appoints the new presidents of the regional units.

Kharge became Congress president in 2022. But keeping in mind the Lok Sabha polls of 2024, the party did not change president in any state.

Meanwhile, AICC general secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir, who was here to review the party's performance in West Bengal in the just-concluded general elections, also indicated that someone other than Chowdhury could be named as the new president of the party here.

"New faces are coming to the organisation all over the country. But who will be made the provincial president in Bengal will be decided after talking to everyone," he said following the review meeting held here on Friday.