Former PCC president and former Minister Niranjan Patnaik on Sunday said he does not want to contest elections this time under the leadership of his “much junior” Jayadev Jena, who is the present Pradesh Congress Committee president.
Patnaik, who was talking to a TV channel here, first expressed his reluctance to seek election in 2014. When further queried, he said he does not want to contest polls with Jena as the State party head. But, he added that he would continue to be in politics and serve people.
Patnaik said he has so far met Jena after the latter became the PCC chief only once, at an Eid get-together.
In fact, Patnaik, who is known to be an old adversary of Jena in the Congress politics in their Keonjhar district, is extremely unhappy when he was replaced as the PCC president by Jena earlier this year.
Since then, he has been touring different areas of the State and taking up public issues in his individual capacity without being part of any party programme.
And his younger brother Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, who organised rallies in various parts of the State as a virtual challenge to Jena’s authority as the party head, was recently expelled from the Congress.
It seems the Patnaik family headed by former Chief Minister and present Assam Governor JB Patnaik stands sidelined in the State Congress politics after Jena’s nomination as the PCC chief by the party high command.