Infighting in the State Congress surfaced again, this time within twenty-four hours of the announcement of new DCC presidents finalised by none other than party high command Rahul Gandhi.
The same old slugfest started with party’s Koraput MlA Krushna Chandra Sagaria objecting to the appointment of Minakshi Bahinipati, wife of Jeypore MlA Tara Prasad Bahinipati, as Koraput DCC president.
“We have never got support from Bahinipati and his wife during or after elections even for party activities. We won by ourselves and with active support of party cadres,” Sagaria told reporters.
He further added Minakshi was absent during gram panchayat poll campaign even as party cadres badly needed her presence. She stayed in Koraput town only.
Interestingly, the Dalit MlA from Koraput has lodged a complaint with the party high command and the Odisha-in-charge alleging against that MlA Bahinipati had passed casteist remarks against him. He has even threatened to resign from party if no action is taken against Bahinipati.
Notably, Sagaria has recently been converted into Buddhism. A group of party followers have complained to the PCC president regarding my religion change at the behest of Bahinipati, alleged Sagaria.
Similarly, former Minister and newly-appointed Khordha DCC president Suresh Routray has thrown an open challenge to the party leadership to contest 2019 Assembly elections deviating from the “one man, one post” policy.
These developments seem going against the rejuvenated party rank and file and the high command, who are engaged in reviving lost fortunes caused due to “family politics”.
Similarly, the appointment of Bishal Kumar Das, son of PCC working president and MlA Naba Kishore Das, has also raised many eyebrows.
Notwithstanding these, with the name of Rajya Sabha MP Ranjib Biswal, younger brother of another working president and MlA Chiranjib Biswal, is doing rounds for the post of State treasurer of the party, ‘family coterie’ seems still alive within the party.
Amidst all these, though PCC president Niranjan Patnaik has responded to Sagaria's allegation of casteist remark against him by Bahinipati, he is yet to settle the dust while the party preparing for the greater fight in 2019.
It has been learnt that the PCC president is going to form a three-member committee at the instruction of the party's Odisha- in-charge Jitendra Singh to look into the Koraput MlA’s complaint. The committee would submit its report to AICC president Rahul Gandhi.
Meanwhile, Party insiders have revealed that a detailed roadmap has been finalised at a two-hour-long meeting held between a PCC team led by Patnaik and Rahul Gandhi on Saturday.
With all these hiccups and challenge posed by disgruntled party workers, it looks to be a mammoth task for Patnaik to finalise the list of new office-bearers and select candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections.