The first visit of Dr A Chellakumar, an MP of Tamil Nadu and AICC general secretary, to Odisha after his appointment as the new in-charge of the State unit of the Congress, has generated visible interest among the party cadres. He replaced former Union Minister Jitendra Singh, who had served in the same role since 2018 but failed to bring glory to the State unit in 2019 general election.
After the 2019 poll debacle, the OPCC president rightly submitted his resignation on moral ground but was asked to continue. As time went by, the party high command gave indirect messages for the change of guard at a later appropriate time. The speculation made leaders exercise lobbies for the next OPCC chief post. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought a temporary halt to such activity in the State Congress.
Dr Chellakumar’s appointment has signaled the beginning of a process of in invigorating the OPCC leadership and pumping life to the moribund organisational system of the party.Right now the challenge for the State Congress is to face the two Assembly by-elections in Tirtol and Baleswar Sadar constituencies in a dignified manner though it is a different matter whether the party will win the seats.
As by-elections are usually won by the ruling party in the State, this should not bother Chellakumar much. Infact, his first test lies ahead in the forthcoming 2021 ULB and 2022 Panchayat elections.
If he succeeds in these semi-finals, then he could face the 2024 general elections with confidence. Perhaps he was given the charge of Odisha Congress due to his three decades of political experience and party high command’s trust on him.Dr Kumar can get huge inputs for drafting the 2020-2024 roadmap of the State Congress correctly if he meaningfully reflects on the 2014 -2019 reorganization strategy of the State unit.
Why did the last plan fail? Why there emerged a mid-course need for changing the first OPCC president, Prasad Harichandan and the first State –in-charge, BK Hariprasad? Why did PCC president Niranjan Patnaik and former State-in-charge, Jitendra Singh, fail miserably in 2019 poll? Why did not the pre-poll activities, poll strategy, the working president system, campaign committee system, new induction plan of journalists and social workers, yield the desired poll results?
Was the failure in the last poll due to PCC leadership, organisational structure, intra-party conflicts, poor election strategy, trust deficit, secret compromises or a combination of all these factors? Now the first job for Dr Kumar is to find a suitable PCC president who can mobilize the frozen party unit.
The new president should be able to move to the districts to revamp the organisation, spend money for activities and facilitate protests against the policies of both the ruling parties, the BJD and the BJP? He should be also able to follow the AICC line of mobilisation which is not happening now.
The moot issue before him is should caste be a criterion in the selection of PCC president? Congress had tried with the SC, ST and OBC cards in the past but the strategy failed.
The party is also unlikely to give the PCC charge to former PCC chiefs or old senior leaders. The right criterion could be selection of a leader who has won confidence of people, preferably someone from group of MLAs and MPs.