Kharge's posters defaced in Bengal: AICC seeks report on 'gross indiscipline'

New Delhi: The All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Monday said it was "gross indiscipline" on the part of some party office-bearers and workers in West Bengal making "uncharitable remarks" against Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and indulging in "acts of vandalising the hoarding (of Kharge) outside of the WBPCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) office".

The party leadership asked the AICC general secretary in-charge of the state to submit a probe report on the matter.

The incident outside West Bengal PCC was widely seen as a backlash to Kharge's public snub of state PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's criticism of Mamata Banerjee when she said that the Trinamool Congress would extend "outside support" to the INDIA bloc after the general election.


Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had already distanced himself from the incident.

Even as the AICC magnified the internal rift by asking the general secretary to submit a report, Kharge later tried to do a balancing act by praising Chowdhury's role in the party.

Since the Lok Sabha election in West Bengal will conclude only after the last phase of polling on June 1, many in Congress feel any disciplinary action amid the polls could prove costly for the party in the state.