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West Bengal Congress chief Pranab Mukherjee has 'petitioned' party president Sonia Gandhi to relieve him of the responsibility in the state, so that his services could be utilised at the central level, a party official indicated on Friday.
Requesting anonymity, the official told rediff.com that the veteran party leader, who had had served in senior capacities from India Gandhi's time, had apprised Sonia that he should be brought back to Delhi since he had fulfilled his responsibilities as West Bengal pradesh Congress committee chief.
He said Mukherjee had met the Congress chief on Wednesday, and virtually pleaded that his services be utilised at the central level.
Contacted at his Talkatora Road residence, Mukherjee's personal assistant Ranbir Singh said, "Sahib is right now on a plane to Calcutta. He will return on Tuesday."
" I am not aware about it," said party spokesman S Jaipal Reddy, when asked whether Mukherjee was being brought back.
However, there is persistent talk at AICC headquarters that Mukherjee is doing the rounds in Delhi "to escape the faction-ridden environment of the West Bengal party unit''.
Mukherjee was appointed West Bengal PCC chief by Sonia before the assembly polls when his predecessor, A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury, tried to hardsell the concept of a 'mahajot' (grand alliance) with the Congress-Trinamul Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Sonia, however, ruled out any truck with the BJP, but later concluded an electoral alliance with the Trinamul Congress of Mamata Banerjee, following which Mukherjee's 'nightmare' began.
Resentful that he had to bow to the party high command's wishes and vacate the PCC chief's post for Mukherjee, Chowdhury quietly commenced a smear campaign against the former.
"He is not even a political lightweight, how can you tolerate his being foisted by the Delhi Durbar (Sonia) as PCC chief," Chowdhury reportedly told his followers, in a bid to make things difficult for Mukehrjee.
Chowdhury's followers, like former PCC chief Somen Mitra, Saugata Roy and others apparently did not need much persuasion.
The anti-Mukherjee lobby in the West Bengal unit of the Congress thereafter clamoured that it needed a 'grassroot leader' like Chowdhury, who has consistently won all elections from 1952 onwards from Malda, instead of a 'political novice' like Mukherjee, who has never won a Lok Sabha election.
Mukherjee's role as PCC chief was further put in the shade with an aggressive Mamata calling the shots in the Trinamul-Congress alliance, including distribution of tickets.
Congress general secretary incharge of West Bengal, Kamal Nath, virtually gave Mamata a carte blanche for steering the Trinamul-Congress electoral strategy in the state, much to the chagrin of Mukherjee, who was sidelined.
Ever since, Mukherjee had resolved to relinquish the PCC chief's slot and return to central Congress politics.
However, his task does not appear to be easy because his return to Delhi means another addition to the already top-heavy central leadership and those close to Sonia do not relish the prospect of another one being added in their midst.
" If any crucial changes are made, the media will be notified. After all, such developments cannot be hush-hush," Reddy pointed out.
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