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"Nobody is above the party. Indiscipline in the party will not be tolerated at any cost," AICC`s Odisha in-charge Jagdish Tytler told reporters here.
Asking partymen to air their grievances inside the party forum, Tytler said there is a clear direction that only authorised leaders are empowered to speak outside and before the media on different issues.
If senior leaders make adverse remarks to the media about leadership and fight in the open, it would benefit the ruling BJD and the Naveen Patnaik Government in the state and affect Congress, the former Union Minister said.
Tytler, who was here on a two-day visit coinciding with an emergency meeting of state party unit office bearers and district presidents, admitted that the party "witnessed factionalism in Odisha."
It has become a practice that whenever a new PCC president takes over, some people start a campaign against him, he said adding that such activities affect the interests of the party instead of strengthening it.
Backing the PCC President Niranjan Patnaik, Tytler said the PCC chief alone should not be blamed for the defeat of party candidates in panchayat and other elections.
Faced with challenge to his leadership from a section of partymen, Patnaik also warned of disciplinary action against those indulging in indiscipline in the party. "No anti-party activities will be tolerated," he said after a party meeting here yesterday.
The warnings from Tytler and Patnaik came barely a fortnight after some MLAs led by former PCC working president L B Mohapatra sought leadership change in Odisha Congress.
Some legislators had also met Central leaders in Delhi last month demanding a change in PCC.
Mohapatra has been maintaining that a thorough overhauling was necessary in order to rejuvenate the Congress and enable it to move forward to take on the ruling BJD in the state.
