Pradeep Singh

Bhubaneswar: The 2019 Lok Sabha elections saw Congress, the grand old party, losing its ground big time. However, leaders and workers of Congress are currently working hard to revive the party. Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) has begun a membership drive in the State to strengthen the party's organisation from the grassroots.

OPCC reportedly aims at including more and more people into the party-fold by encouraging them to become a member of the grand old party and making them aware of the alleged misdeeds and mis-rule of the Centre and Odisha government.

For people who believe in the principles of Congress and want to counter the cadre-based parties' destructive mindset, the party has started the membership drive, said senior Congress leader Rama Chandra Khuntia, adding that the inclusion of more people will strengthen the party at the grassroots and help Congress in 2024 general elections.

Commenting on the membership drive of Congress, BJP's Prithviraj Harichandan said, "We are happy that political parties are adopting our ways of strengthening their organisations. However, a party (Congress) that lacks principles, ideology and has no vision can never rebuild its organisation; besides, people will also never accept such a party."

"Congress has accepted that its four-decade-old cadre has somewhere collapsed. Time can only tell how they (Congress) will put it into work; people of Odisha are waiting to witness it. We accept their challenge," said ruling-BJD MLA and spokesperson, Pratap Deb.

Political experts believe that had the Congress taken such steps earlier to strengthen its organisation, India would presently have a coherent Opposition to keep the government (at the Centre) democratically accountable.

“Congress is too late in thinking about it (membership drive). It should have taken such steps earlier for a cadre-based political party to attract more people as the party is left with no other option,” said political analyst, Prasanna Mohanty.

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