WB Cong MLAs write down preference for next CLP leader

Names of senior state leaders Abdul Mannan, Abu Hena, and Manas Bhuniya are said to be doing rounds after newly-elected Congress MLAs today met central leadership here to decide on Legislature Party leader in West Bengal Assembly.
The Congress MLAs individually submitted their preference for CLP leader to senior leaders C P Joshi and Ambika Soni at a meeting here.
Congress insiders said Mannan is ahead of Bhuniya as he is known to be an anti-TMC face in Congress and also one of the main architects of Congress-CPI(M) alliance.
"Today I have come here to meet the Congress MLAs and take their views and prepare a road map for the party in days to come," Soni told reporters.

Congress General Secretary C P Joshi, Ambika Soni and state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury were present at the meeting with 39 Congress MLAs.
Five other MLAs who were absent in the meeting were said to have spoken to the leadership over phone.
"After a general meeting, all MLAs are meeting Ambika Sonia and C P Joshi individually where they are being given a paper to write down the name of the person whom they want as the CLP leader. Soni and Joshi will take those papers and submit it to our party president Sonia Gandhi, who will take the final call," a senior Congress MLA told PTI.

The post of CLP leader holds immense significance as the person would be the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly because Congress, with 44 MLAs, is the second largest party.