Srikant Jena, who along with a few of other Congress leaders failed to prevent Rahul Gandhi’s nomination of Niranjan Patnaik as the new PCC president, has immediately begun his machinations against Patnaik’s leadership. 

A champion of the widely-rejected Mandal-type reservations of the VP Singh regime at the Centre, Jena, who has been made head of the PCC manifesto committee, has invited views from public to a series of his proposals about who should be Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Ministers and other occupants of posts if the Congress wins the 2019 elections.

According to Jena, an OBC (Other Backward Class) leader should be Chief Minister and there should be two Deputy Chief Ministers chosen from the Dalit and tribal communities, respectively.

Jena has aired his views without consulting PCC president Patnaik. Notably, Patnaik is from the general community while Jena is an OBC man and his associates Jayadev Jena and Bhakta Charan Das are from the Dalit class.

Srikant Jena’s move, which is clearly meant against Niranjan Patnaik, has triggered widespread anger in the party’s rank and file who expect the new PCC chief will revive the hitherto-moribund organisation ahead of the general elections which are hardly a year ahead.

Highly-placed party sources said Jena’s “wicked” move would be brought to the noticed of Congress supremo Rahul Gandhi, who would surely pull him up for his acting as “an agent of (Chief Minister) Naveen Patnaik to sabotage the Congress’s new hope in the State”.