By D N Singh
The Congress party in India has not been in a good state since last almost a decade . The case of its Odisha unit is equally appalling given its condition which has been on the gradual decline since over two decades.
What is significantly visible is the absence of a leader in the Congress who can match up to the stature of the BJD supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik, or take the party head from the self-inflicted problems which can show a semblance of unity to stand up to the ruling dispensation in the state.
The Congress has been long suffering from a kind of spiral acrimonies within where each leader in the Congress appears to be dream pusher to catch the leader spot.
In last over one decade or more the state unit of the Congress has remained blighted by self promotion and no one is ready to listen to the sane advice of the other. Everybody tries to be driven by his or her rapport/proximity with the party high command and sadly the high command has never been noticed to have accorded any priority to the Odisha Congress.
Floundering in darkness
Frankly speaking, after the exit and then the sad demise of the legendary Congress leader and a long time chief minister, J B Patnaik, the party has not been able to demonstrate any togetherness as of date.
There was a phase, may be still there, when the dark under belly of the Congress got exposed through a chronic phase of leaders flying to Delhi to register their opposition to any existing Pradesh Congress President and that farce went on till Niranjan Patnaik left the president ship latest after a series of ugly show off of internecine conflicts within.
Patnaik, however, survived many such avalanche from within by his own strength but was never able to amp the party to weather the indomitable aura of Naveen Patnaik.
In the latest, the Congress high command chose to install Sarat Patnaik, an erstwhile MP, as PCC president in order to keep the internal squabbling among the coastal leaders at bay.
But little did Sarat Patnaik appear, so far, to rise up to a stature of a state leader let alone be a rallying point. Rather, the former made the Cong look more dwarfed even before the Bharatiya Janata Party in Odisha helmed by Dharmendra Pradhan.
With the clamour for 2024 got started, the incumbent PCC prez in Odisha remains significantly out of focus both in the social and mainstream media.
This is besides the fact that, the Congress in Odisha has already suffered the humiliating rank of becoming the third political party after the BJP.
It is unlikely that, the party can reinvigorate itself under the circumstances before 2024.
