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Stating that the president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik is not willing to hold on to the position, Congress MLA Tara Bahinipati on Tuesday reiterated a change in Odisha Congress leadership is inevitable and nothing can stop it.
The Jeypore MLA said the new OPCC chief must be chosen from the nine legislators of the State Congress. "The next president should be an MLA, and there will be disappointment among the leaders if someone out of the nine MLAs is not chosen for the top post," he said.
"...We may not quit the party but will definitely apprise Rahul Gandhi about our disappointment if an MLA is not appointed as the next OPCC chief," he added.
Another MLA Adhiraj Panigrahi also claimed the OPCC needs immediate change in leadership for good and the All India Congress Committee (AICC) should come up with a permanent solution to the problem plaguing the party.
"We have been demanding a change in the leadership for long now. Congress is losing its organisational strength and grip in the State. He (Niranjan Patnaik) is saying he has already resigned. We have requested Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, and the party’s State in-charge to accept his resignation and help Congress regain its strength at grassroots level," said Panigrahi.
On the leadership change issue, Kantabanji MLA Santosh Singh Saluja said, "Congress is a national party and the high command in Delhi takes such decisions. We can't take a call and hence, we have to abide by the decision of the high command."
Whether or not one from among the MLAs should be the next OPCC chief is a call to be taken by the party’s high command, Saluja said, "Be it an MLA or an outsider, we will welcome whoever is appointed as the party president. We have no say in it."
Meanwhile, Niranjan Patnaik said he has tendered his resignation from the OPCC chief post after Congress's debacle in the 2019 general polls but the AICC is yet to accept it.
