West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee

The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC), formerly known as the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee in Colonial India, is the unit of the Indian National Congress for the state of West Bengal. It is responsible for the organization and management of the party's activities and campaigns in the state, as well as selecting candidates for local, state, and national elections.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee
পশ্চিমবঙ্গ প্রদেশ কংগ্রেস কমিটি
PresidentSubhankar Sarkar
Founded19 June 1966 (58 years ago) (1966-06-19)
HeadquartersSealdah, Entally, Calcutta, West Bengal, 700014
NewspaperAndolon.in
Student wingWest Bengal State Chhatra Parishad
Ideology
Political positionCentre-left
AllianceSecular Democratic Alliance
Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (National level)
Seats in Lok Sabha
1 / 42
Seats in Rajya Sabha
0 / 16
Seats in West Bengal Legislative Assembly
0 / 294
Seats in Gorkhaland Territorial Administration
0 / 62
Election symbol
Website
wbpcc.org

Structure & composition

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S.no Name Designation
1. Ghulam Ahmad Mir AICC Incharge
2. Meer Akhtar Hussain RGPRS Incharge
3. Subhankar Sarkar President
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee
4. Azahar Mollick President
West Bengal Pradesh Youth Congress
5. Subrata Dutta President
West Bengal Pradesh Mahila Congress
6. Priyanka Choudhary President
West Bengal State Chhatra Parishad NSUI
7. Rahul Pandey President
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Seva Dal

List of Presidents

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S.no President Portrait Term Duration
1 Ananda Gopal Mukherjee 1981 1985 4 years, 0 days
2 Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi   1985 1989 4 years, 0 days
3 Siddhartha Shankar Ray 1989 1992 3 years, 0 days
4 Somendra Nath Mitra 1992 1998 6 years, 0 days
5 A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury   20 July 1998 22 August 2000 2 years, 33 days
6 Pranab Mukherjee   22 August 2000 17 February 2008 7 years, 179 days
(2) Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi   17 February 2008 23 October 2008 249 days
7 Manas Bhunia   23 October 2008 17 January 2011 2 years, 86 days
8 Pradip Bhattacharya   17 January 2011 10 February 2014 3 years, 24 days
9 Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury   11 February 2014 22 September 2018 4 years, 223 days
(4) Somendra Nath Mitra 22 September 2018 30 July 2020 1 year, 312 days
(9) Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury   9 September 2020 21 September 2024 4 years, 12 days
10 Subhankar Sarkar
 
Incumbent 57 days

List of Chief Ministers of West Bengal from Indian National Congress

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There were five Chief Ministers of West Bengal from the Congress party:

S.no Name Portrait Term
1. Prafulla Chandra Ghosh   15 August 1947 22 January 1948 250 days
21 November 1967 19 February 1968
2. Bidhan Chandra Roy   23 January 1948 1 July 1962 14 years, 159 days
3. Prafulla Chandra Sen   9 July 1962 28 February 1967 4 years, 234 days
4. Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee   2 April 1971 28 June 1971 87 days
5. Siddhartha Shankar Ray 20 March 1972 30 April 1977 5 years, 41 days

Political history

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The Congress Party was popular in West Bengal from the beginning till the late 1970s. The party was voted out of power in 1977 due to the Emergency. After that, they played the role of the opposition during the Left Front regime. The party suffered a big blow when Mamata Banerjee left the Congress and founded the breakaway party of Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 1998. This led to exodus of the party members to the TMC and demise of the Congress Party in West Bengal. The party further declined due to the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal in the mid 2010s, relegating the party to a mere fourth-party status in the state. In the Legislative Assembly election in 2021, the party drew blank for the first time and failed to win a single seat in the assembly.

West Bengal Legislative Assembly election

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Year Party leader Seats Contested Seats won Change
in seats
Outcome
1982 Ananda Gopal Mukherjee 250
49 / 294
  Opposition
1987 Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi 294
40 / 294
  9 Opposition
1991 Siddhartha Shankar Ray 284
43 / 294
  3 Opposition
1996 Somendra Nath Mitra 288
82 / 294
  39 Opposition
2001 Pranab Mukherjee 60
26 / 294
  56 Opposition
2006 Pranab Mukherjee 262
21 / 294
  5 Opposition
2011 Pradip Bhattacharya 66
42 / 294
 21 Government
2016 Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury 92
44 / 294
  2 Opposition
2021 Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury 92
0 / 294
  44 Opposition

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Lowell Barrington (2009). Comparative Politics: Structures and Choices. Cengage Learning. p. 379. ISBN 978-0-618-49319-7.
  2. ^ Meyer, Karl Ernest; Brysac, Shareen Blair (2012). Pax Ethnica: Where and How Diversity Succeeds. PublicAffairs. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-61039-048-4. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  3. ^ Soper, J. Christopher; Fetzer, Joel S. (2018). Religion and Nationalism in Global Perspective. Cambridge University Press. pp. 200–210. ISBN 978-1-107-18943-0.
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