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Updated: Jun 18, 2019 17:43 IST

The Congress on Tuesday named Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, its five-time MP from Bengal’s Berhampore as the leader of the party in the Lok Sabha, a day after the Budget session of Parliament began.

After a lengthy meeting of the Parliamentary Core Committee in the morning at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s house, the party wrote to the secretary general of the Lok Sabha, informing him of its decision of entrusting Chowdhury with the responsibility of taking up all matters of the party in Parliament.

Sources said Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari, Thiravanthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor and Mavelikkara MP Kodikunnil Suresh were also in the running for the post. Party leaders were also keen to have Rahul Gandhi lead in the Parliament.

The 63-year-old Chowdury said he will continue to fight got the Congress. “I have been given this responsibility (the leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha). I was asked to stand in the front. I said okay. I am a foot soldier and foot soldiers stand in front. So I will fight as a foot soldier,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

A party leader said that Chowdhury’s appointment as Lok Sabha floor leader was also necessitated by the need for the party to rebuild itself in the east. “The party’s president is from south India, but the Congress now needs to work on the states in the east,” said the leader. Chowdhury is the party’s lone Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal where Assembly elections are scheduled in 2021.

Although the Congress is the largest party opposition party in the Lok Saba with 52 members, it fell short by three members to be accorded Leader of Opposition status.

Chowdhury has been representing Berhampore since 1999. He is also the president of the Bengal unit of the Congress. The Congress which had won four of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014, managed to win only one this time with Chowdhury retaining his seat.

Chowdhury replaces Mallikarjun Kharge who was the Congress floor leader in the last Lok Sabha . Kharge lost the elections this time from Karnataka’s Gulbarga.