A grand ovation was accorded to new PCC president Jayadev Jena at the Congress Bhawan here on Sunday when he assumed office. Earlier, Jena had remained PCC chief for four years and eight months.
Addressing an upbeat gathering of Congress rank and file, Jena profusely thanked Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh for having reposed their faith in his leadership of the PCC. He remarked that he had already appeared at his “test examination” successfully as the Congress won the laxmipur by-election during his earlier PCC leadership and he would now appear for the “final examination” in the 2014 general elections in which the party would definitely come out with an absolute majority to form Government by throwing the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD regime to the Bay of Bengal. His statement drew thunderous applause from the gathering.
Jena dubbed the BJD Government of the last 13 years as the most corrupt regime in Odisha’s history, when the poor has become poorer and the rich richer and the Zamin, Jal and Jungle have been sold away to industries and the Government has been involved in the mega mining scam and chit fund frauds.
He accused the BJD Government of giving only 25kg of rice to each BPl family in lieu of 35 kg as ordained by the Supreme Court and as sanctioned by the Central Government. The State Government has been looting 10 kg of rice from each poor family since 2008. He called upon Congress workers to lodge FIRs against Ministers for such open theft of rice.
Earlier, Union Minister Srikant Jena, known as the mentor of Jayadev Jena, in his speech, came down heavily on Naveen Patnaik for having failed to provide a progressive leadership to the State. He observed that out of the State’s 84 lakh families, 64 lakh families are below the poverty line, which eposes the BJD Government’s claim of the State’s progress.
Srikant Jena thanked the Congress high command for choosing a Dalit leader to head the PCC.
AICC general secretary Mirza E Beg also addressing the meeting hoped that this day of rejoicing should also be the day of pledges to bring the Congress back to power in 2014. He hoped that a Karnataka-like situation would emerge in Odisha in 2014.
The gathering swelled by every minute till the mass of Congress workers spread outside the Congress Bhawan towards the roads and Master Canteen Square listening with rapt attention the rhetoric of their leaders from the podium. The party workers stood patiently from 8 am till 1.30 pm braving the burning sun.
Among others who spoke were former Chief Ministers Hemanand Biswal and Giridhar Gamang, former Central Minister KC lenka, former PCC president Sarat Pattanaik, State Congress women’s wing chief Bijayalaxmi Sahoo, leader of Opposition in the Assembly Bhupinder Singh, Congress Chief Whip Prasad Harichandan, woman leader Asima Mahananda, MPs Amar Pradhan and Pradeep Majhi, MlA Naba Kishor Das and several DCC presidents and Youth Congress and Student Congress leaders.
A letter of outgoing PCC president Niranjan Patnaik was read out wherein he stated that he had to leave for New Delhi at the behest of AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi.