BHUBANESWAR: Factionalism is back in the State Congress days after senior leader Niranjan Patnaik was allowed to continue as president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) by the high command. Sources said a section of senior leaders have started targeting Patnaik over his alleged secret links with the ruling BJD.
Incidentally, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, younger brother of the OPCC president is BJD legislator from Khandapara Assembly constituency. Soumya Ranjan was a BJD Rajya Sabha member who contested 2019 Assembly elections by winning with a record margin of over 80,000 votes. However, this time there is a change in the manner in which the dissidents are raising the issue.
Some of the leaders are openly giving statements and threatening to take the matter to Congress national president Sonia Gandhi. Former Congress MP Amar Pradhan said on Saturday that some leaders are involved in antiparty activities and have secret ties with the ruling BJD in Odisha. Pradhan warned that he will expose everybody before the national president. Sarat Rout, a secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC), also has come out openly in support of Pradhan. “Congress leaders involved in anti-party activities need to be exposed and expelled from the party.
Such leaders are more concerned about other political parties instead of their own party,” he said. Significantly, the dissidents have stepped up their activities after AICC asked Patnaik to continue as OPCC chief. Several senior leaders, including Congress Rajya Sabha member Ranjib Biswal and party legislator Tara Prasad Bahinipati, had openly supported Patnaik’s continuance as OPCC president in view of the civic body polls expected early next year.
Patnaik had tendered his resignation as OPCC president after the dismal performance of Congress in 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Congress, which had won nine Assembly and one Lok Sabha seats, had slipped to the third place behind BJP for the first time. After Sonia Gandhi took over as interim president of Congress, AICC dissolved all State committees and dismissed all office-bearers except the OPCC president and two working presidents.