The State Congress looks to be nipping in the bud its chances of an improvement in the panchayat polls in 2017 and subsequent general elections in 2019. For, the party is still beset in factions and neither its top brass in the State nor in the national level is seriously doing anything to keep it united and win the confidence of the people. While before the 2014 general elections, the quitting of the party by a stream of dissatisfied leaders and workers had weakened the faction-ridden State Congress further, the party has not been able to get over the same old problem of internal rivalry and indiscipline as yet. On the contrary, the situation in the State Congress has gone from bad to worse, with the PCC chief Prasad Harichandan remaining out of sync with party MlAs, especially loP Narasingha Mishra. The possibility of an exodus of leaders and workers of the party to the BJD and BJP cannot be ruled out ahead of the two major elections in the State.
Though the group of 16 MlAs led by Mishra to New Delhi to meet President Pranab Mukherjee and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was tight-lipped about a move for a change of guard in the organizational head, subsequently, however, the leaders one after another made no bones about their rift with PCC president Harichandan and the proposal they made before Gandhi for a change of the leadership in the Odisha Congress. loP Mishra, who is heading a parallel campaign vis-a-vis BJD’s over Mahanadi, by consensus of leaders across party line, and making it somewhat a platform for reaping mileage to his party, is reportedly angry with Harichandan who is not supporting his move and in the meeting with Gandhi, he reportedly sought to complain before Gandhi how Congress failed to cash in on crucial issue due to lackadaisical attitude of the PCC chief and several other party leaders. The old rivals in the party like Niranjan Patnaik and his supporters and Jayadev Jena and his aides are not in a mood to bury the hatchets and have been making comments on various issues which speak volume about the fissures in the party.
Harichandan was replaced as the PCC chief for being a soft-spoken and non controversial leader so that a neutral leadership can emerge with support of all in the party. His much hyped slogan ‘Mu Nuhen Ame’ (Not I, but we) was to tackle the arrogance of leaders and make the State unit untied. But down the years, it looks the old rivals are still arrogant and not ready to make peace. Most pertinently, Harichandan and even Odisha Congress in-charge BK Hariprasad have not been able to tame the undisciplined leaders. Already Salepur MlA Prakash Behera has given a telltale sign when he was all praise for CM Naveen Patnaik at a meeting recently in his constituency. Behera dubbed Patnaik as number one CM in the country and said he felt proud of Patnaik when he heard appreciations for the CM.