BHUBANESWAR: From nine to 90, this will be the target of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) for the 2024 Assembly elections. Encouraged by the response in the bypoll to the Brajrajnagar Assembly seat where the party secured the second position by pushing the BJP to the third position, the Congress has decided to take over the real Opposition space in the State.
Newly appointed OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak said that Congress can bounce back if party leaders fight unitedly and give up factionalism. “We can repeat what the party had done in 1995 by returning to power again,” he told mediapersons here.In one of the worst ever electoral debacle, Congress had won only 10 seats in the 1990 elections when Janata Dal led by Biju Patnaik had registered a landslide victory by winning 123 assembly seats. However, Congress had made a comeback by winning 88 seats in the 1995 election.
Pattanayak said that Congress can again repeat this feat in the 2024 election. Stating that he had already started discussion with senior leaders about the roadmap of the party, Pattanayak said that new set of office-bearers will soon be in place. He said that names of working president, general secretaries and secretaries will be announced soon. He announced that youths will be given priority in the next election.
Following the AAP model through which the party succeeded electorally in Delhi and Punjab, Pattanayak announced that first 200 units of electricity will be provided free to all domestic consumers if the party comes back to power. Besides, all the vacant posts in schools, colleges and universities will be filled up, he said and added that concrete steps will be taken to solve the unemployment problem in the State.