West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee

The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WB.P.C.C or WPCC) is the unit of the Indian National Congress for the state of West Bengal. The head office of the organization is Bidhan Bhavan, situated in Kolkata at Dr. Lalmohon Bhattacharya Road. The current President of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee is Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

The WBPCC, since 2009, has been trying to regain the Congress's lost votebank in West Bengal after the advent of Trinamool Congress as the principal challenger to the Left Front in the state. To maintain a healthy alliance with the AITC at the Centre, the state unit of the Congress has had to compromise regarding the seat-sharing adjustment with AITC during almost every election since the 2009 Loksabha polls. Despite its organisational strength, the Congress had not been allowed to contest sufficient number of seats in its bastions of Murshidabad, Malda, Uttar Dinajpur and pockets of Purulia, Birbhum, Nadia, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Bardhaman, Uttar 24 Pargana and Kolkata district in the 2011 Vidhansabha election . Thus, there was a great dissent among party workers and state level leaders, some of whom have defected to the AITC which has been desperate to make inroads into Congress strongholds. The Congress workers have been attacked and their party offices have been taken over by alleged AITC activists despite the latter being the party's alliance partner. In the municipal elections to six civic bodies in 2012, no alliance could be worked out between the state Congress and the AITC as the latter had offered very few seats for the Congress to contest, which was totally "unacceptable" to the Congress leaders. Therefore, the Congress was left with no other option but to field candidates independently, but there were reports of alleged threats from AITC workers to Congress candidates - warning them of dire consequences if they did not withdraw their nomination . For instance in Haldia municipality, two Congress candidates was assaulted and their husbands were 'kidnapped' by alleged Trinamul Congress activists which forced them to withdraw from the electoral fray. The situation was same in Durgapur Municipal Corporation election, where Congress workers and candidates were allegedly prevented from campaigning in few wards by Trinamool Congress leaders. Due to this, the Congress could not field candidates in as many as 24 of the 129 wards which went to polls. Such is the situation in West Bengal Pradesh Congress circles which as of now is making it difficult to revive the Grand Old party in the state of West Bengal.The big task ahead of the WBPCC is to prove the Congress's existence as a force to reckon with in the state by defending the Congress's fortresses and by winning a substantial number of seats in the municipal elections as well as the Panchayat elections in 2013 which would be quite enough to boost the morale of the beleaguered Congress worker to take on all opposition from the Left Front as well as the AITC.

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