After Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury stepped down as president of the West Bengal Congress committee, the speculation is rife on his political future, who has represented Baharampur in the Lok Sabha for 25 years and was also the Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha between 2019 and 2024. Whispers among Congress insiders suggest that Chowdhury might be looking forward to a new future for himself, since he had critiqued the party high command for their leniency towards Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress. Chowdhury, who lost his stronghold in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, expressed unhappiness over internal party decisions and the imminent leadership changes in West Bengal. While the party has begun discussions with around two dozen leaders from Bengal to choose the new state leadership, with Chowdhury out of the picture, the party would rethink its ties with the TMC. The buzz is that the MP from Maldaha South, Isha Khan Chaudhari, or Deepa Dasmunshi could be in the race for the post of the state president of the West Bengal Congress unit.
CONGRESS TO APPOINT NEW PRESIDENT OF ITS MINORITY CELL SOON
The organisational reshuffle in the Congress is expected to be done soon. The party is looking for a round of fresh appointments at the AICC. Whispers in Congress suggest that a new chairman for the party’s minority department will be appointed. Senior Muslim leaders and workers claim that Rajya Sabha MP and Chairman of Congress Minority Department Imran Pratapgarhi, who has gained popularity among Muslim youths because of his strident anti-Narendra Modi stance at mushairas (poetry sessions), could not devote sufficient amount of time for party affairs. As one section of party leaders wishes that senior leader should be appointed. The names doing rounds are that of Kunwar Danish Ali and Raashid Alvi.
MAYAWATI GOES BACK TO BAHUJAN BASICS, DEMANDS CASTE CENSUS
Given that BSP was not able to win a single seat in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, with its core Dalit votes shifting to other parties, now supremo Mayawati is trying to go back to the basics and redraw the party’s bahujan strategy. Behenji has now demanded a caste census from the central government. However, the challenge before the party is not only to win back Brahmin, Muslim, and non-Yadav backward class votes, a strategy that propelled it to power in 2007, but to also win back the nearly 21 per cent Dalit vote, 12 per cent of this being Jatav, which is Mayawati’s caste. Furthermore, Mayawati also targeted the Samajwadi Party (SP) over its decision to appoint a Brahmin MLA as the Leader of Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Mayawati claimed that the SP secured the votes of the PDA (Pichda, Dalit, and Alpsankhyak or Backwards, Dalits and Minorities) community to win a large number of seats in the Lok Sabha by misleading them, but ignored the group while appointing the Leader of Opposition in Uttar Pradesh.
AS ASSEMBLY POLL NEARS, CONGRESS HARYANA UNIT’S RIVALRIES REFLOAT
The political temperature is soaring high in Haryana as Assembly polls are scheduled to be held later this year. The differences between the Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Sirsa MP Kumari Selja, Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala, and former Union minister Birender Singh) factions of the Haryana Congress have once again resurfaced in the run-up to the state polls. Congress is mostly banking on the leadership of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda, who had run his ‘Haryana Maange Hisaab’ campaign with his son and Lok Sabha MP Deepender Hooda in rural areas to attract voters. Kumari Shelja has emphasized on her Sandesh Yatra to connect with Haryana’s urban voters. Shelja’s group has projected her as the CM face in its meeting. However, the Congress will not project anyone as its chief ministerial face. Through the yatra, the message of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi will be conveyed to every voter and they will be informed in detail about the BJP’s misrule in the last 10 years.
UTTARAKHAND CONGRESS MARCHES FOR KEDARNATH, PROTESTS REPLICA MOVE
The Congress’s wins in the Badrinath and Mangalore assembly bypolls have manifested a new life into the party in Uttarakhand. Congress leaders have bridged up their differences and have joined the Kedarnath Pratishtha Raksha Padyatra, in protest against the move build a replica of the Kedarnath temple in Delhi. The yatra initiated on July 24 from Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar and will conclude on August 3 with a jalabhishek ceremony in Kedarnath. Former CM Harish Rawat, state party president Karan Mahara, and party leaders Harak Singh Rawat, Yashpal Arya, Pritam Singh, and Ranjeet Singh Rawat have joined the yatra. (IPA Service)
Supreme Court Rejects Electoral Bond Probe Request 