Odisha Congress' organisation yet to take shape

Bhubaneswar: Even though the All India Congress Committee (AICC) had announced names of the district presidents and working presidents for Odisha on June 9, the party’s unit here is yet to constitute the Pradesh Congress Committee and District Congress Committees.

Odisha Congress had first announced that the formation of the committees would be completed by June 15 and then by June 30. However, the committees are yet to be constituted.

Speaking on the matter, Congress MLA from Koraput, Krushna Chandra Sagaria said that the party is currently busy resolving several issues at the district level.

“All the secretaries and other leaders are working on it (committee formation) and they will be formed soon,” said Sagaria.

Manas Choudhury, president of Bhubaneswar District Congress Committee said: “We are in touch and having discussions with all party members even those who have left the party due to some differences. We want to form the committees by reviewing things at the grassroots level.”

On the other hand, the AICC on Tuesday sought details of the steps the State units have taken for the ensuing general elections in 2019, to be presented in a meeting chaired by the party president Rahul Gandhi in the third week of this month. The meeting, which is likely to be held at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi, will be attended by the general secretaries, in-charges, secretaries and PCC presidents and working committee presidents of all state units among others.

“Rahul Gandhi is the national president of Congress; won’t he prepare his party for the elections? It’s just a preparatory meeting. He has sought different information from us which we will present in the meeting,” said party’s Odisha unit chief Niranjan Patnaik.

As per reports, the meeting will have discussions on the party’s strengths and weaknesses in every parliamentary constituency and chalk out strategies for the polls to take on the BJP and the ruling-BJD government in the State.