A unity move has been started in the State Congress ahead of the visit of AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi to the Capital city in the last week of August or first week of September. Besides addressing a public meeting here, Gandhi will meet senior leaders of the party at the Congress Bhavan to discuss strategy for the 2014 polls.
Part of the unity move seems to be the joint press conference going to be held on Friday at the Congress Bhavan here by president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Jaydev Jena and former OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik.
Jena told this paper that he is consulting all the senior leaders of the party to take on the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government in the coming elections unitedly. Sources said Jena is trying to reach out to all the senior leaders so that the party can fight the urban body polls scheduled in last week of September without factionalism.
However, delay in announcement of office-bearers has affected poll preparedness of the Congress. Though Jena was appointed three months back as OPCC president replacing Niranjan Patnaik, AICC is yet to announce the office-bearers.
The OPCC president, however, said he has already submitted the list of office-bearers and it will be announced by the high command soon. The media committee, disciplinary committee and social media committee have already been announced.