BHUBANESWAR: Several senior leaders of the Congress are apprehensive about the fate of the party in the urban body polls scheduled on March 24 after the worst-ever results in the zilla parishad (ZP) elections in which the party was wiped out in as many as 18 districts.
Congress performance in the just concluded panchayat elections cropped up in the State Election Committee meeting for the urban local body (ULB) polls on Wednesday. The issue of financial support to the candidates was raised by some of the members at the meeting headed by the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Narasingh Mishra.
Vice-president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) and Kantabanji MLA Santosh Singh Saluja, who is a member of the committee warned that the party will face the same fate in the ULB elections if it does not provide enough financial support to the candidates.
Saluja said that lack of resources including money and absence of top leaders from campaigning were major reasons behind the downhill slide of the party in the panchayat elections. “BJP governments were there in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand in 2017 and they had provided enough financial support to the saffron party candidates during the previous election. However, Congress candidates did not get any support during this panchayat elections though the party has governments in both the states now,” he added.
Meanwhile, Congress has authorised the presidents of the District Congress Committees (DCCs) to decide candidates for the ULB elections. In case of any dispute, they have been asked to coordinate with the OPCC.