BHUBANESWAR:The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) will have a small team unlike last time when it had more than 100 office-bearers.This was announced here on Wednesday by OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik. The OPCC will no longer have a jumbo team. It will be a small team and formed in consultation with Odisha in-charge Jitendra Singh,” Niranjan told mediapersons here.
Talking about the steps to reconstitute the organisation, the OPCC president said district Congress committees will be formed by May 15. About the preparation of election manifesto which has sparked off a controversy over former Union Minister Srikant Jena’s letter to him in this regard, he said that it will be prepared after taking the opinion of the common man.
Meanwhile, the working presidents are on tour of districts to assess the situation at the grassroots level. “Efforts are on to strengthen the party base in areas it is weak,” he said.One of the working president Naba Kishore Das, who is touring 12 districts under his charge said the visit is part of the process to examine why the party organisation is weak in some places and take steps to strengthen the structure. “During the visit we are getting in touch with common people and members of grassroots organisation to assess what went wrong with the party and why people are rejecting us repeatedly,” he said and added that the existing organisation will be revamped.
Stating that the party will come back to power in the next elections, Das said leaders without any base will not be considered for any post in the organisation. Das has already visited Dhenkanal, Angul and Sonepur districts and will be touring Koraput, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Balangir, Jharusguda and other Western Odisha districts under his jurisdiction.
Pradip Majhi, another working president, said he will start the district tour from May 4. The working presidents will submit report by May 15. Chiranjib Biswal, working president who is in charge of north and coastal Odisha districts has already started his district visits.