Bhubaneswar: Pushing aside the fight for leadership battle for the time, the factional leaders in the Odisha Pradesh Congress unit are regrouping now, realising that it would be too late if political activities were not taken up to gear up the party workers ahead of the 2019 polls.
A day after the youth wing of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) successfully held the Yuba Adhikar Samavesh in the state capital, senior leaders of the party met on Wednesday and discussed future course of action to take on the ruling BJD and check the rise of the BJP that is riding high in the state because of the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sources said that OPCC presidents Sarat Patnaik, former state president Jaydev Jena, former Union minister Bhakta Charan Das, former Nabarangpur Lok Sabha member Pradip Majhi, Congress chief whip in the Assembly Tara Prasad Bahinipati, former ministers Sarat Rout, Ganeswar Behera and veteran leader Suresh Kumar Routray spoke to each other over telephone and resolved to organise protest rallies on regular intervals to highlight corruptions and scams of the BJD government.
“We have resolved that agitations against the Naveen Patnaik government for its failure to solve the growing unemployment problem will be intensified. Our youth activists have been instructed to launch agitations all over the state to oust the BJD government in Odisha,” OPCC chief Prasad Harichandan said this newspaper on Wednesday.
The new-found unity of the Congress leaders has come source of encouragement of party’s rank and file as well grassroots workers. As the factional leaders fought for change of guard in the OPCC on the eve of panchayat polls in February, the party’s vote share in the elections plummeted to 18 per cent from 24 per cent in the 2014 polls.
Though a Tuesday’s rally and public meeting was organised under Odisha Pradesh Youth Congress (OPYC) banner, it was in fact considered to be a show of strength by the Congress though several senior leaders including Leader of Opposition Narasingh Mishra and former president of OPCC Niranjan Patnaik were conspicuous by their absence.
Alleging that there was a secret understanding between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, president of Indian Youth Congress Amrinder Singh Raja Brar said in the youth rally that the CBI probe into chit fund scam had slowed down because of this pact.
