Bhubaneswar, Apr 4 (PTI) Rattled by the party’s poor performance in the recently held panchayat and urban polls, a section of Odisha Congress MLAs are seeking a change of guard in the state unit.
Of the nine Congress MLAs in the state, four of them — Taraprasad Bahinipati, S S Saluja, Adhiraj Panigrahi and Mohammed Moqium — have expressed concern over the party’s present situation and future prospects, further demanding a reshuffle in the party.
“The party must survive. An alternative leadership should be installed to strengthen the party’s Odisha unit,” Panigrahi, a lawmaker from Khariar, said.
Bahinipati, a Jeypore legislator, and Jatni MLA Suresh Routray, known for their loyalty to Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) chief Niranjan Patnaik, also insisted on a change in leadership.
“Niranjan Babu falls ill whenever there is an election. Therefore a new and strong leadership should be installed in Odisha,” Bahinipati maintained.
Routray, while supporting the idea, said that the party leadership should back candidates with resources during elections in order to counter its rivals.
“The OPCC president should provide necessary logistics to the candidates fighting against the mighty BJD and BJP,” Routray said.
Kantabanji MLA Santosh Singh Saluja claimed that party candidates who won the rural and urban polls did so through their “personal efforts”.
The Congress which ruled Odisha for decades before Naveen Patnaik’s BJD took over the reins of the state in 2000 was pushed to third spot in state politics after the 2019 elections.
The BJP replaced Congress as the state’s main opposition party.
In the just-concluded urban polls, the Congress secured only 12 per cent of the votes and won only seven chairperson seats as against 13 seats in 2013-14 polls. The BJP, on the other hand, bagged 16 chairperson seats.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal clinched 73 such seats along with three mayoral posts in municipal corporations of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur.
What came as a shock for the OPCC is that its candidates failed to open account in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, with its mayoral candidate losing the deposit.
Only one party candidate won in the 42-member Berhampur Municipal Corporation.
In the Cuttack Municipal Corporation, the party pocketed eight of the 59 seats.
Of the total 1,716 councillor posts across the state, the party bagged 134, according to the State Election Commission (SEC).
In three-tier panchayat elections held in February, Congress candidates secured only 37 of the total 852 Zilla Parishad seats. The BJD, on the other hand, won 766 and BJP 42 seats.
In the 2017 panchayat elections, the Congress had won 60 seats.
The grand old party had been losing its vote share since 2000.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress in Odisha secured 13.81 per cent of the total votes polled against 26.38 per cent in 2014.
OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik, on his part, said efforts were underway to strengthen the organisation.
He had tendered his resignation as the party’s state unit chief after the 2019 debacle.
The All India Congress Committee, however, was yet to respond to his resignation letter.
Since 2000, the Congress has changed OPCC president nine times. PTI AAM RG RMS RMS
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Source: The Print
