AICC general secretary in-charge of Odisha BK Hariprasad has publicly accused Soumya Ranjan Patnaik of hiring goons to use against his opponents in the party.
Hariprasad has also charged Patnaik of nurturing a “hidden agenda” while he was in the party before being expelled for indiscipline. The party’s rank and file are happy over Patnaik’s expulsion, he said.
“Goondaism, hooliganism will not work in the Congress,” Hariprasad said, obviously referring to attack on the house of PCC disciplinary committee chairman Harihar Karan and the vandalism at the Congress Bhavan.
Miscreants had pelted stones at Karan’s house and broke the window screens of his car hours after it was announced that Patnaik had been expelled from the party by the AICC. An angry Hariprasad also said that the sad state of the State Congress of today was due to the hooliganism of a section of its leaders.
Interestingly, Soumya Patnaik, son-in-law of former Odisha Chief Minister and present Assam Governor JB Patnaik and younger brother of ex-PCC president Niranjan Patnaik, has now been referring to AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s actions after his (Patnaik’s) expulsion from the party.
He asked Hariprasad to explain whether Rahul Gandhi is not bigger than the party. If Rahul Gandhi was not big, why the Central Cabinet withdrew the Ordinance on convicted leaders after he termed it as “complete nonsense”, he asked.
Patnaik’s reaction came after Hariprasad, while announcing his expulsion, said that the party is bigger than any person. Patnaik also cited Rahul Gandhi’s language in relation to the Ordinance on convicted leaders and asked party workers to “tear up” his “complete nonsense” expulsion order.
Senior State Congress leader and Union Minister Srikant Jena has also been firing salvos at the Patnaiks of the State Congress. He has alleged that Odisha remained poor despite JB Patnaik ruling the State for 14 long years. In fact, Jena stated that Odisha is now the poorest State, as is termed in the Raghuram Rajan’s report, after 14 years of the JB Patnaik regime and 21 years of rule by late Biju Patnaik and his son Naveen Patnaik.a