Pranab Mukherjee is back as the president of the Bengal Congress.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi announced his nomination, saying it was necessitated because the incumbent chief, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, continued to be hospitalised.

The two working presidents, Pradip Bhattacharjee and Subrata Mukherjee, who were appointed after Das Munshi fell ill, have been accommodated in the co-ordination and campaign committees constituted for the Lok Sabha election.

But Subrata has been accorded a little more importance by being asked to chair the campaign committee amid reports that he was feeling “shackled” and was “looking at other options”.

The wife of Das Munshi and MLA, Deepa Das Munshi, has also been put on both the committees along with Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, Abdul Mannan Hassan and Noorul Islam Chowdhury.

Among Mukherjee’s first tasks will be conducting negotiations with the Trinamul Congress for an alliance.

Mukherjee’s relations with Mamata have not always been on an even keel. Recently, he backed Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s position on acquiring land for industrial use in the context of Singur. But Congress sources said such a stand would not be a hurdle in clinching an alliance.

Sources said Mamata would first have to completely sever ties with the NDA.

Bengal Congress legislature party chief Manas Bhunia said his party was also in favour of an alliance with the Trinamul Congress. “But Mamata should not dictate terms while offering seats to us. We had won six Lok Sabha seats in 2004 and Trinamul one. This ground reality has to be taken into consideration,”