BHUBANESWAR: Even though the party suffered severe jolt due to emergence of factionalism in its ranks over appointment of Kalahandi district president, Congress today announced it will intensify campaign against the BJD on the issues of corruption and failure of governance in 2016.
Though the BJD has been in power for the last 16 years in Odisha, the state has gone backward with loan burden going up to `49,000 crore, education and health sectors in a mess due to shortage of teachers and doctors respectively and farmers' suicide continuing unabated, president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Prasad Harichandan said while addressing the foundation day function of the party here.
Referring to the announcement of chief minister Naveen Patnaik to prepare a vision document, 'Odisha at 100' keeping an eye on projected growth of the State in 2036, Harichandan called upon the Congress workers to expose the all round failure of the State Government.
Several senior leaders including former union ministers Srikant Jena and Chandrasekhar Sahu, former OPCC president Jaydev Jena, former MPs Ramchandra Khuntia and Anant Prasad Sethi, former minister
Jagannath Patnaik and OPCC vice-president Judhistir Jena attended the function.
Attempt to revive Congress at the grassroots level suffered a setback recently for the open revolt of former union minister Bhakta Charan Das against the state leadership. Das alleged that former MLA
Gobardhan Das was appointed as Kalahandi district Congress president without consultation with him.
However, the OPCC president maintained that all senior leaders had been consulted before the appointment of Kalahandi district president. The issue remains unsettled even as Das has threatened to launch hunger strike demanding cancellation of the appointment.