BHUBANESWAR: At a time when the BJD and BJP are consolidating their organisational base in the state in view of the 2024 elections, attempts by Congress to rebuild the party have remained a non-starter due to the delay in announcement of state office-bearers and the ongoing factionalism in the party.
A major cause of concern for the party has been its failure to placate working president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Chiranjib Biswal, who is a senior leader with having an organisational base in the Jagatsinghpur district. He has avoided attending any party programme and stopped going to Congress Bhavan for more than a year.
Biswal denied talks in the political circles about resigning from the Congress. He, however, maintained that going to Congress Bhavan will not fetch votes for the party. The party will have to be strengthened from the grassroots level, he said.
Earlier in the day, former chief secretary Bijay Patnaik who joined Congress recently met Biswal at his residence to persuade him to attend party programmes. Of the three Congress working presidents, Biswal is still in Congress. Former ministers Naba Kishore Das and Pradip Majhi had left the party and joined the BJD.
OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak said the state office-bearers will be announced by the month-end. All process has been completed, he said and added that the announcement was held back because of the plenary session of the party at Raipur. It will now be announced, he said.On Patnaik visiting the house of Biswal, the OPCC president said there is nothing wrong. Political persons visit each other, he added.