BHUBANESWAR: Barely six months after Bhakta Charan Das’ appointment as the president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC), the party seems to be going back to its old ways with factionalism beginning to rear its ugly head again.
Several senior leaders are already dissatisfied with Das’ style of functioning. This whiff of discontentment became more marked during an informal get-together organised by the son of a former OPCC president, where several senior leaders took stock of the present situation in the party. Sources said they have decided to meet once again to decide their next course of action in this regard.
The latest incident which has irked the senior leaders is getting tagged with their much junior counterparts selected from outside the state by the All India Congress Committee (AICC), to make field visits for taking opinions from the local people on appointment of the district Congress committee (DCC) presidents.
The programme for selection of DCC presidents, known as ‘Srujan’, will start from Monday. While former OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik will visit Ganjam along with the AICC team, former Union minister Srikant Jena will visit Kandhamal. Similarly, two other former OPCC presidents Jaydev Jena and Prasad Harichandan will visit Koraput and Puri respectively.
A former OPCC president said some of them had earlier taken up the issue with Das but the latter expressed his helplessness to change the directive issued by AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal. This has led to resentment among the senior leaders, he added.
One of the senior party leaders also alleged Das was singularly taking all decisions regarding the party affairs and not involving any of them. He further said that senior leaders have also not been addressing any press conference nor taking part in party programmes for the last several months after appointment of Das as the OPCC president.