KOLKATA: Newly-appointed West Bengal Congress chief Somen Mitra said on Friday that his priority will be to make the the party stand on its feet in the state. Mitra said that vote share of Congress has dwindled to 2-2.5% in the state and that needs to be shored up.The Congress on Friday removed Adhir Chowdhury from the post of the Bengal Congress chief and appointed septuagenarian Mitra as the new president. Hours after he received a call from the party’s Bengal minder Gaurav Gogoi, Mitra said, “vote share of the Congress in the state has come down to 2-2.5%. There are organisational lacunae and we must bridge the gap. I have been entrusted with a job by the Congress high command and I will try to keep up to that,” said Mitra.Mitra, who felt that the party is lacking on a mass connect, said that the party must stand on its own footings first.“We have to stand on our own feet first. The talks for alliance will come later. I will focus on removing the weakness inside the party,” he said. “I resigned from the post of the PCC president 20 years back and it is not an easy task for me now. But I will not disappoint the high command of the party,” he said.Earlier, during his meeting with the party president Rahul Gandhi, Mitra spoke about the party’s short-term gains if it forges an alliance with the Trinamool Congress. “Over the years, Trinamool has grown from strength to strength. It is now breaking the party from within,” he said. Commenting on the dissenting voices from Malda, Mitra said that he will take some time to assess the ground reality.

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