Bhubaneswar: Speculation over a possible change of guard in the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) gathered momentum as Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi called on senior leaders of PCC for a meeting September 5.
The office of Rahul Gandhi Saturday asked senior Congress leaders from Orissa to reach New Delhi by 9.30 am September 5 to for a meeting.
This meeting assumes significance in the wake of the recent visit of a three-member AICC team to the state.
The meeting has been called possibly to take a final call on the continuance of the PCC President, Prasad Harichandan, a demand made by many leaders of the party’s state unit.
State leaders including Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra, opposition chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati, senior Congress leader Hemananda Biswal, PCC chief Prasad Harichandan, senior party leaders Bhakta Das, Pradeep Majhi, Srikanta Jena, Jayadev Jena, Niranjan Patnaik and Suresh Rautray will meet Rahul. The discussion wil centre around the selection of the party’s new state chief and other issues relating to organisational restructuring, sources said.
The AICC team has submitted its report after assessing the party’s situation in the state. Congress MLAs and a faction of senior Congress leaders are at loggerheads with the incumbent PCC president Prasad Harichandan since 2016 and are also hell bent on replacing him soon, claiming the morale of party workers and the organisation is at a stake under Harichandan’s stewardship.
“The state unit of the Congress is undergoing a period of suspense, hope and despair. This September 5 meeting is crucial and I hope it would be a decisive one for paving the path for perking up the party organisation here,” former Congress MP Ananta Sethi said.
Senior Congress leader and former MP Pradeep Majhi said a final decision would be taken on the ongoing fighting and change in the PCC president at this meeting.
Congress MLA Bhujabal Majhi also spoke on a similar line, saying, “The high command has summoned all of us to discuss on the possible next PCC president.”
However, PCC discipline committee chairperson Sandhya Rani Mohapatra said as the organisational election will continue till October, they cannot change the PCC chief now.
Sources in the party said the high command is likely to appoint a PCC chief, two working presidents and a campaign committee chairman to please the leaders, who are eying for the PCC president’s post. PNN
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