Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Friday appointed Itahar MLA Mosaraf Hossain as the president of the party’s minority cell after replacing the incumbent Hazi Nurul Islam.

The move is considered significant after Trinamul’s defeat in the bypoll in the Sagardighi Assembly segment in Murshidabad district. Sagardighi has 65 per cent Muslim votes.

Sources said the change in the leadership of the minority cell came after a five-member committee headed by library minister Siddikullah Chowdhury to probe the reasons behind the defeat in Sagardighi was placed at a meeting that Mamata convened at her Kalighat home on Friday.

Congress candidate Bairon Biswas, backed by the Left, won the Sagardighi Assembly bypoll by a margin of 22,986 votes, defeating Trinamul’s Debasish Banerjee.

Sources said though the report by Chowdhury and his team suggested that the defeat in Sagardighi was a one-off case of upset and Trinamul’s minority vote bank was intact, Mamata has decided to intensify vigil on the minority vote bank and made the change.

“Mosaraf Hossain is a very young leader who presently looks after the party’s youth organisation in North Dinajpur. The former president Hazi Nurul Islam, however, has been made the chairman of the minority cell. The party is looking for fresh minority faces in several Muslim-dominated districts like Murshidabad, Malda, North Dinajpur, Birbhum and East Burdwan,” said a senior Trinamul leader in Calcutta who was present on Friday’s meeting at Kalighat.

During the meeting, Mamata came down heavily on two Trinamul MPs from Murshidabad, Abu Taher Khan and Khalilur Rahaman and accused them of hobnobbing with Congress state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

“She openly rebuked the two senior leaders from Murshidabad and claimed that they were hand in glove with the Congress in Murshidabad. She also made them responsible for the defeat in Sagardighi,” said a Trinamul leader.