During the pre-Independence days, the Odisha Congress unit had boycotted an important national convention of the party due to the national leaders’ dilly-dallying attitude in declaring Odisha as a separate State on language basis.
In the first Assembly poll of 1951-52, the Congress party had bagged only 67 seats. In 1961, the Congress got a majority for the first time by winning 82 Assembly seats. It was late JB Patnaik, who could bring the Congress to power in the State with absolute majority in 1980, 1985 and 1995.
After 2000, the Congress has repeatedly failed to assume power in the State. One key reason of the exile is the inability of the national leaders to choose a suitable State leader at the poll time. Various leadership experiments are not yielding results to fill up the vacuum of JB Patnaik.
The 2000 Assembly poll debacle of the Congress in Odisha was due to the inter-play of four important factors such as the anti-incumbency, Vajpayee wave, euphoria for a new regional party BJD, BJP-BJD alliance and the Biju-sympathy. The Congress fell to 26 Assembly seats in the poll, from its earlier strength of 80.
Before a few months of the 2004 poll, the AICC offered the State leadership role to JB Patnaik. In a short time, he could enhance the Assembly seats to 38 but could not reach the majority mark. He also managed to get two lok Sabha seats in the face of strong BJD-BJP alliance.
2009 was a real opportunity for the Congress to capture power in Odisha as the BJP-BJD alliance was broken and the Congress was in power at the Union Government. Much before the poll, JB Patnaik had left the State politics to become the Governor. There was a leadership vacuum. The Congress gave the State leadership to KP Singdeo who is an ex- Union Minister. The party had chosen a MP for the OPCC president post, instead of choosing one from the MlA/ex-MlA basket. There was a sub team of three regional leaders, including Srikanta Jena as campaign head. But the State team failed to deliver results in the Assembly election. The assembly seats slipped from 38 to 27. However, the party had bagged six MP seats, though the PCC president’s role in the lok Sabha success is minimal.
These lok Sabha seats were gained by the Congress party, only in the erstwhile BJP occupied constituencies. As the BJD and the BJP had to compete with each other in 2009, their votes got divided while the Congress’ votes remained intact contributing to the Congress success.
But due to improper selection of the Assembly candidates, there was fall in number of seats while a rise in the lok Sabha seats. As many as 26 Assembly candidates lost poll deposits. Besides, there was no cracking of BJD coastal vote base. Had Niranjan Patnaik been given the State leadership at that time, the coastal base of the BJD would have been devastated. Though Chandra Sekhar Sahoo was Union Minister during 2004-2009, he could neither give time to the State to strengthen the organisation nor could mobilize a big eye-catching project for the State. Thus the Delhi power of the Congress could not used by the State Congress in 2009 poll.
The 2014 general election brought another opportunity for the Congress as the BJP was weak in the State and there was anti-incumbency wave against the BJD Government. Modi-wave was not able to penetrate in Odisha. But the Congress lost this chance also. The Assembly seats further dropped to 16 and there was zero lok Sabha win. Initially, the party had rightly chosen its senior leader, Niranjan Patnaik, as OPCC president to fight the 2014 poll but changed him before the poll and gave the responsibility to Jayadev Jena and made Srikant Jena as campaign head. The party also committed another blunder before the poll, by dropping its senior leader and a media baron Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, from the party for none of his visible faults .During 2009-14, Srikant Jena, who was a Union Minister could not lunch a big scheme in Odisha nor could give time to the party strengthening process, unlike the present BJP Union Minister Dhrmendra Pradhan.
Ticket selection was again a problem in 2014 as a result of which 40 Assembly candidates lost their deposits. It was a mess.
After the disastrous performance in 2014 Assembly poll, the Congress made young, former Minister and backward caste leader Prasad Harichandan was made the OPCC president to face 2017 PRI poll. But he could not check the further downfall of the party in the last Panchayat election and the votes dangerously shifted to the BJP candidates in the Congress belt. Besides, a deadlock also surfaced between the OPCC and the ClP, causing harm to the voters’ and workers’ confidence. Now there is continuous defection in the Congress grassroots leaders to the BJP. There is a talk of change of the OPCC leadership.
But what should be the leadership concept for the Odisha CongressIJ Punjab won the last Assembly poll by giving leadership to senior leader, Captain Amarinder Singh. According to some political analysts, the same model can work in Odisha. A senior leader can consolidate the 40-70 age group votes substituting the young age floating votes. In this model, Niranjan Patnaik appears to be the only available senior leader to head the OPCC and the party cadres believe him as a game changer. He has the necessary Government and poll management experience and is the only leader who has the connectivity with all Parliament constituencies. Financial strength and media connectivity are also his pluses. Western Odisha leader like Bhakta Das and a small PCC team now hope that he can give the best electoral results in 2018 urban polls and in 2019 general election, and checkmate the BJD and the BJP.