BHUBANESWAR: Congress has appointed senior leader and Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo as the party’s temporary in-charge of Odisha for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
The decision has been taken as the present incumbent Jitendra Singh remains busy in Rajasthan and national politics. Singh has not visited Odisha for the last several months.
Singh Deo’s new appointment is aimed at galvanising the party’s organisation at the grassroots level for the simultaneous polls. The senior leader had toured several parts of Jagatsinghpur district with a team of the party’s Manifesto Committee to seek public opinion. Singh Deo played a key role to dislodge BJP from power and install a Congress Government in Chhattisgarh by active campaigning. As Congress in Odisha has decided to follow Chhattisgarh’s example in a bid to oust the BJD Government in the State, Singh Deo will play an important role in party’s poll preparations here.
A statement issued by AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said party’s national president Rahul Gandhi has appointed Singh Deo as temporary in-charge of Odisha while current in-charge of the party’s affairs in the State Jitendra Singh will continue in his post as usual.
Meanwhile, the second phase candidate selection process of Congress in Odisha will begin from Monday with the arrival of a three-member screening committee headed by VD Satheesan. Selection of candidates for 10 Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies has already been completed. Congress has, however, decided not to announce the name of its candidates for the elections before BJD and BJP.
Sources said the party will wait for announcements of candidates of BJD and BJP before declaring its own list. As talks are doing the rounds in political circles that the ruling BJD will deny tickets to many sitting MPs and MLAs, Congress plans to take in some of the rebel candidates with winning chances to field them as party candidates. Some of the candidates will be informed in advance by the party to prepare for elections in their constituencies. The party has decided to renominate all the sitting MLAs though three of them have quit the party and many more are waiting to do so.