Rahul Gandhi begins consultation process to quell dissent in Odisha Congress

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, May 08, 2017: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday kick-started a consultation process on organisational restructuring in Odisha where growing dissent against the state leadership threatens the party’s revival plan ahead of the 2019 assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

A final call on the change in state leadership is expected to be taken after the crucial meeting.

All the 16 Congress legislators and one Rajya Sabha MP, state unit chief Prasad Harichandan apart from Niranjan Patnaik and Bhakta Charan Das who have emerged as the strong contenders for the top party post are in Delhi to meet the Congress vice president.

The meeting comes a day after Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik revamped his council of ministers by inducting 10 fresh faces and elevating two ministers of state to the cabinet rank. The reshuffle was done following a slide in vote share of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the recent panchayat elections.

The BJP pushed the Congress to the third position in the rural elections to occupy the space of the principal opposition party.

Rattled by the exodus of its cadre, the Congress has stepped up efforts to put its house in order in the state. In the past few weeks, Congress leaders, including general secretary in-charge of Odisha BK Hariprasad, have repeatedly accused the BJD and the BJP of “poaching” its rank and file.

The infighting in the Odisha Congress has escalated after the party’s rout in the elections to the local bodies two months ago.

Of the total 846 zilla parishad seats for which polls were held in five phases from February 13, the BJD won 473 seats while the BJP bagged 297 and the Congress managed to win just 60 seats.

Apart from workers and leaders at various levels, all 16 Congress legislators have raised a banner of revolt against Harichandan. These legislators, led by Congress legislature party (CLP) leader Narasingha Mishra, had met the party’s central leadership on several occasions last year and even threatened to resign from the assembly if their demand for a change of guard was not met.

Harichandan had replaced Jayadev Jena as the state chief after the drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha and assembly elections. The Congress managed to bag just 16 out of 147 assembly seats and drew a blank in the Lok Sabha polls.

To address the grievances of the disgruntled leaders, Gandhi on Thursday met party leaders Niranjan Patnaik, Bhakta Charan Das and Pradeep Majhi. They urged the party vice president to remove Harichandan from his position as “he had failed to resurrect the party and re-energise” the cadre.

They also told Gandhi that Harichandan’s failure to stem the rebellion in the state unit and carry everybody along had affected the party’s performance in the panchayat elections.

On his part the Congress V-P stressed on the need to have wider consultations on the issue and convened the Monday’s meeting to discuss organisational rejig.

The Congress leadership is also said to be looking for a new general secretary for this eastern state since Hariprasad had been asked to continue till his replacement is found.

Hariprasad had owned responsibility for the debacle in panchayat elections and resigned from the post.

Revamping the party’s Odisha unit is Gandhi’s top priority, Congress sources said, adding Niranjan Patnaik and Das are the frontrunners for the state chief’s post.

Having ruled Odisha for several decades since Independence, the Congress has been out of power in the state since 2000 when Naveen Patnaik of the BJD took over as the chief minister.

Hemananda Biswal was the last Congress chief minister.

Now the Congress’ position as the main challenger to the BJD is also being threatened by the BJP. Riding on the Modi wave, the BJP increased its vote share in 2014 Lok Sabha elections to 21.5% from 16.89% in 2009 while the Congress’ vote share had dropped to 26% as compared to 32.75% in 2009.

The chief minister’s party swept the 2014 polls winning 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats with its vote share increasing to 44.1% from 37.23% in 2009. The remaining seat went to the BJP.

In the assembly elections in 2014, the BJD won 117 of the 147 seats with a vote share of 43.41%. The Congress bagged the 16 seats with a vote share of 25.74% while the BJP won 10 seats getting 18.02% of the votes.

Courtesy: Hindustantimes