BHUBANESWAR: A group of women leaders has left for New Delhi to lobby for removal of president of OPCC Niranjan Patnaik even as the process for restructuring of the party’s State unit has started under his leadership.
Patnaik attended a public meeting at Keonjhar on Sunday as part of revival of party’s State unit. Secretary of AICC Odisha in-charge Mastan Vali and deputy leader of CLP Santosh Singh Saluja attended. Sources said such meetings will be held in different parts of the State in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the team of women leaders led by Sandhya Mohapatra has left for Delhi to meet party president Sonia Gandhi and other senior leaders to apprise them about Congress status in Odisha and replace Patnaik with a young leader.
Sources said women leaders are in favour of appointment of Cuttack-Barabati MLA Mohammed Moquim. A group of party leaders, including some former office-bearers, had also visited New Delhi to lobby for the removal of Patnaik. The group met several senior party leaders during their stay in the National Capital.
The dissidents had met several times here and also tried to garner support from some senior leaders before deciding to take their case to the High Command. However, the move of the dissidents is yet to elicit any positive response from the Central leadership.