Kolkata, Aug 25 (IANS) The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has directed the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) to be extremely selective about inducting leaders and workers associated with the Trinamool Congress into the party.
In a communication to the state Congress president, Subhankar Sarkar, the AICC in charge of West Bengal, Prakash Joshi, said that while the country’s oldest national party must expand its organisational base in the changed political scenario in the state, that expansion should not be about including history-sheeters.
“Under the present circumstances, it is necessary for strengthening the Congress Party that, wherever required, workers of other political parties or social workers should be inducted into the Congress. However, in such cases, it is equally important that the names or list of persons proposed to join the party should first be forwarded to the Pradesh Congress Committee. Only after the Pradesh Congress Committee has assessed the credentials, merits and shortcomings of the individuals concerned, and the list has received the approval of the AICC, should such persons be formally inducted into the Congress Party. The Pradesh Congress Committee and other Senior party leaders are expected to ensure strict adherence to the above-mentioned procedure with regard to all such joinings,” read the communique from Joshi to Sarkar.
Incidentally, the communique followed a recent development earlier this week when the former state Congress president and the former five-time party Lok Sabha member, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, had organised a public programme at his native district of Murshidabad and there he personally inducted five former district Trinamool Congress leaders within Congress.
The five district-level Trinamool Congress leaders who joined Congress on August 23 included the chairman of the Trinamool Congress-controlled Dhuliyan Municipality in Murshidabad district, Mohammad Injamul Islam.
In his communique to Sarkar, Joshi has also indirectly clarified that the August 23 development had prompted the AICC to impose restrictions on inclusion of Trinamool Congress leaders and workers in Congress in the changed political scenario.
The AICC has also put on hold the formal inclusion of the five Trinamool Congress leaders in Murshidabad for the time being.
Political observers feel that through this communique, the AICC has also given an indirect message to Chowdhury that the party high command will not accept any of his actions without the concurrence as it used to be when he was the state Congress president and also a party Lok Sabha member.
–IANS
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