After AICC, Will Odisha Congress Get A New Chief?

Bhubaneswar: Following the appointment of Sonia Gandhi as the interim president of All India Congress Committee (AICC), speculations are now rife that a revamp of the leadership of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) is in the offing as the current chief Niranjan Patnaik has already tendered his resignation.

Taking moral responsibility of party's poll debacle in the general elections, Patnaik sent his resignation to the then AICC chief Rahul Gandhi in May this year. He had then said that even though he resigned from his post, he would still remain in the Congress and work towards strengthening the party organization in the State.

However, AICC has reportedly not accepted the resignation of Patnaik. Speaking to the media here on Monday, the OPCC chief said that he has already tendered his resignation and had even visited Delhi thrice to convince AICC to accept his decision.

"Whenever I raised my resignation issue, I was told that after the leadership issue of the AICC is resolved, State issues would be looked into. As the AICC matter is resolved now, once again on Sunday, I requested them to accept my resignation," said Patnaik.

Poor performance of Congress in general elections in Odisha had resulted in revolt within the party with some senior leaders questioning the poll management of the State leadership as the party conceded its principal opposition status to the BJP after managing to win only nine assembly seats against its earlier tally of 16 in 2014.