Odisha Congress lacks leadership, fighting spirit: Chiranjib Biswal’s statements stir storm

Is Odisha unit of the Congress losing its identity in the state? Well, this question is haunting many owing to the poor performance of the party in past elections including bypolls in the State. Senior Congress leader, Chiranjib Biswal on Monday made some strong statements while speaking about the ‘Janaki Patnaik- Basant jodi’.

Chiranjib Biswal stated that Congress is no longer the same and those born after 2000 don't know anything other than Naveen Patnaik. The state unit of Congress has failed to reach out to such people so far.

“The Congress is now facing tough times and it lacks the fighting spirit. There is a need to work hard and it is really very unfortunate that there is no leadership here,” said Biswal. Biswal went on to add that the party's MLA strength in the Odisha Assembly is now limited to nine. Nobody knows what will be the number in coming days, he said

“We are just fighting the byelections for namesake only. There are only 9 MLAs but 20 CM faces in Odisha Congress. The youths who are actively working are not getting adequate opportunities,” said Biswal.

Biswal also raised questions about the distribution of party tickets to candidates.

“One candidate will nourish the constituency while another one will get the ticket. I doubt whether the Congress will be in a position to give good candidates in all 147 assembly constituencies in the state,” Biswal added.

When contacted PCC president, Sarat Patnaik said, “I don’t want to comment on any personal statements. We are concentrating on the Jharsuguda byelection and later we will look into it as it is an internal matter of the Congress.”