Panchayat polls: Cong prepares blueprint amid growing rift

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Congress today prepared a blueprint for the upcoming Panchayat Polls amid in absence of the some members of the legislature party. While some of the MLAs who are also district presidents were absent in the meeting, PCC president Prasad Harichandan finalized the party’s strategy for the panchayat polls after holding discussions with the other district presidents.

According to sources, the party’s strategy is to target the ruling-BJD by highlighting its 17 years of misgovernance, while sensitizing the people about the Central government’s failures. Party sources informed that meetings with the members of the task forces set up in Gram Panchayats will be held at district level from November 25-26. While the district presidents apprised the PCC chief of the situation in their respective areas, discussions were also held on choosing the right candidate, poll campaigning strategy and finalization of the Panchayat Poll manifesto.

“The common man has become aware of the misgovernance and corruption in the past 17 years of BJD rule. We are arranging meetings in all the districts,” said Harichandan.

However, absence of MLAs Naba Das, Debendra Sharma, Prakash Behera and MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati’s wife were absent from this important meeting further fuelling speculations of the growing rift within the party members. In fact among the party MLAs, only Jacob Pradhan was present in the meeting.

Also Read: Prasad meet with dist chiefs part of war with CLP?

With Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting scheduled tomorrow, some leaders have openly admitted intra-party feud.

“They have not called the legislators. If somebody is trying to create a rift then let it be. It is the duty of the AICC to clear the rift. If the PCC and the CLP operate separately, then it is not good for the Congress,” said Bahinipati.

“Today I could not attend the meeting due to some personal reasons. But somewhere, there are some differences within the party due to which not only legislators but also a lot of youth and senior leaders have expressed their displeasure,” said Prakash Behera.

“It is obvious that there is a big communication gap within the party else one would not find the members commenting against each other. We have informed the high command about the problem and have asked them to resolve it immediately,” said Naba Das.

Similarly, the ire of the students wing against party’s Odisha in-charge, BK Hariprasad failed to subside as the members carried out a rally today and also created ruckus by shouting slogans at Congress Bhawan while today’s meeting was underway.

The irate Student Congress activists gave a week’s time to AICC leader and Odisha in-charge BK Hariparasad to withdraw his statement that the AICC had offered PCC president post to their leader Lalatendu (Lulu) Bidyadhar Mohapatra.

The Student Congress activists later submitted a memorandum to Prasad Harichandan in this regard.