BHUBANESWAR: The State Congress always used to have a jumbo team of office-bearers not only to strike a balance in representation of different factions but also to weed off dissidence. The number of office-bearers at times became so large that it was a herculean task to accommodate them on the dais during a meeting or media conference. But things seem to have changed during the last couple of years.
Former president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik had to wait for almost the entire tenure of over two years for the appointment of State office-bearers. A similar situation bogs the new OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak. Though three months have elapsed since he took over, there is no sign of appointment of office-bearers.
The president, in the meantime, has made several trips to New Delhi. But it has yielded no result. Pattanayak hopes that the announcement will be made in the first week of September to allow him to function effectively for the revival of the party.