With former Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury officially stepping down as West Bengal Congress president, the party has embarked on a path to rebuild its organization in the state ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.
According to All India Congress Committee (AICC) sources, the party wants to form a new committee in West Bengal, formulate a strategy with an eye on the elections and reassess its stance on the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
On Monday, 21 leaders of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress (WBPCC) met AICC General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal in Delhi. Senior Congress leaders from the state, Chaudhry, Pradeep Bhattacharya, Deepa Dasmunsi, Amitava Chakraborty and the party’s only Lok Sabha MP from the state, Isha Khan Chaudhry, attended the meeting.
State leaders left the question of who would replace Aadhir to senior leaders and stressed the need to revamp the organization at the grassroots level. They have called on the AICC leadership to establish new committees in the state from the constituency level and absorb new faces, sources said.
Sources said AICC will reconsider its stand on TMC now that Adirai is not in the state. During Adhir’s tenure, the state Congress was staunchly opposed to the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, although at the national level both parties are part of the opposition All India Alliance.
However, finding his successor will be a challenging task. A senior Congress leader, who did not want to be named, said, “There is a void without Adir Chaudhary as the state president. He is the last man standing against both Trinamool Congress and BJP. He accepted the pressure from the national leadership but did not budge from his anti-TMC stance. “I don’t know if the All India Congress will find a suitable person to replace him,” he said.
What happened at the meeting?
After Monday night’s meeting, West Bengal Congress in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir told reporters, “You know, after the Lok Sabha election results, Adhir Chowdhury submitted his resignation to the high command. Talks on Bengal held; We invited 25 leaders to a one-on-one meeting. Ahead of the 2026 assembly elections, there was a discussion on what to do there. Now a map will be prepared including the party structure”.
AICC general secretary and former Raiganj MP Dasmunsi, who is a staunch critic of Mamata, said, “The way forward in West Bengal is difficult. Nothing happens suddenly. The state has no MLAs, only one MP. We know that during the Left Front rule, there was electoral malpractice. But now it has changed in the form of science and in the form of terrorism. Now if voters do not vote for the ruling party in Bengal their job cards (MGNREGS) and other government schemes will be taken away. The administration has also become a cadre of the ruling party, while the central forces look the other way.
Asked if the party would reconsider its stance on the TMC, Dasmunsi said, “There is also the question of us being part of the Indian alliance, but the struggle against the BJP and the TMC in Bengal. This raises questions. On the other hand, Trinamool Congress is fighting against us in Bengal despite being in the Indian alliance. There is a polarization in Bengal that we have never seen before. “It’s tough, but we have to slowly rebuild our system,” he said.
