Calcutta: Gaurav Gogoi got a taste of dissension in the Bengal Congress in his first trip here on Monday as the new minder, with many groups demanding the removal of Adhir Chowdhury as state unit president.

Sources said several demands in writing, including from the leadership in South Calcutta, North and North and South 24-Parganas, were submitted to Gogoi seeking Chowdhury's exit for the "immediate revival" of the party.

Gogoi, who met Chowdhury separately and inaugurated the state unit's website with him, appeared to play down the calls. "What you are calling dissidence and division is, for us, intra-party democracy.... This isn't the BJP where people are afraid to be heard," said Gogoi, the son of former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi.

The 35-year-old first-time MP, who took over as the Bengal minder from C.P. Joshi last month, also met the party's MPs and MLAs during the day. Sources said he was devoting time to hear out every prominent "lobby" within the state leadership and planned to tour the districts soon.

A Congress leader said the sparring factions within the Bengal unit agree on two points: the "need" for Chowdhury's removal and the "necessity" of keeping distance from chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her party.

"He (Chowdhury) is extremely highhanded and has single-handedly been destroying the party organisation in the state by allowing or forcing leaders and workers leave for Trinamul. We told Gogoi that he should ask party chief Rahul Gandhi to initiate immediate action," the Congress leader said.

Asked about the demand for his removal, Chowdhury shrugged it off saying it was "not new". "Everybody has views and should be able to express them freely. In fact, I had asked him (Gogoi) to talk to everyone in my absence," said the Behrampore MP who has been heading the state unit since early 2014.

The call to keep a "distance" from Trinamul came a time Mamata has been at the forefront of efforts to forge Opposition unity at the national level against the BJP. On Sunday, Sonia Gandhi's political secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Patel met Mamata in Delhi.

"Many leaders urged Gogoi to convey to Rahul that any turnaround for the Congress in Bengal will only be possible if it does not get close to Mamata," said a senior state Congress leader.