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High command summons Bengal leaders to Delhi

KOLKATA: A day after a section of the Congress leadership in West Bengal held a demonstration outside the party office here exposing the fissures that have developed after the recent appointment of Manas Bhunia as the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president, the dissenting leaders were summoned by the party high command to New Delhi on Friday.

“We have been asked to meet Working Committee leaders Ahmed Patel and Oscar Fernandes. We shall meet them and explain our point of view,” Pradip Ghosh, the former president of Congress District Committee of Kolkata (Central), told The Hindu over telephone from the Capital.

The group had organised the demonstration even as membership drive for the Youth Congress, recently launched by AICC general-secretary Rahul Gandhi was in progress on the premises.

“The Congress is a party that gives space for democracy, individual freedom and self introspection. However, when the freedom of the individual is taken to the level of disorder, the party will take action,” Dr. Bhunia told journalists here during the day.

However, he said that he did not have the authority to comment on whether action will be taken against these leaders for bringing their differences in the public domain.

“Where is the question of disorder? We held a peaceful demonstration to voice our opinion. Will we be penalised for expressing our opinion?” Mr. Ghosh said.

Differences within the Congress emerged shortly after Dr. Bhunia took charge on July 29 when more than a dozen district presidents were dismissed from their posts. Since then, the group has claimed that was no transparency in appointments to the PCC. The timing of their protests is significant as Dr. Bhunia is going to face elections for the PCC president post on September 17.

“Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Gandhi have been assuring us of democracy from the booth to the block-level, but this is not being followed in West Bengal,” Mr. Ghosh said.

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