By D N Singh
On Monday the Odisha unit of the Congress party meets the party high command in Delhi. The aim is to restructure the organizational base and breathe in some life into the hopelessly ill unit in the state.
It is a different matter that, the condition of the Congress in India, as a whole, is worrisome and the recent polls in Uttar Pradesh were like the writings on the wall.
However, back in Odisha, it would not be an over statement to say that the state unit is literally floundering in the absence of a strong leadership.
The leaders in Odisha are incomprehensibly disjointed and each leader has a note of lamentation of his own.
Pending the appointment of a new leader to head the Pradesh Congress Committee, the outgoing PCC president, Niranjan Patnaik, has not been able to restore even a semblance of harmony , let alone a togetherness against the invincibility of the in-power Biju Janata Dal.
Each senior leader in the party has his or her own narrative. The recent flutters within have become so noticeable to become a cause for disappointment for the workers down below.
The very recent outbursts from the veteran Congress leader Suresh Kumar Routray, the MLA from Jatani, could not have been more frontal.
He has used all that he has in his oral armory to question the ability of the PCC president.
Little before that, another senior leader and the Congress chief whip, Taraprasad Bahinipati , MLA from Jeypore, minced to no words about his illusions persisting within the party and tendered his resignation from his post.
The rumored resignation by the leader of the opposition, veteran Congress face, Narasingha Mishra, for while, ranted a foreboding note for the Congress.
It will be a tough task for the Congress high command or Rahul Gandhi, who has shown scant concern for the Odisha unit for almost two decades, to gather the splintered bits and bring about an acceptable organizational structure.
There are so many names making round for the top spot.
Not to be economical with truth, and going by what chatters are audible in the Congress circle, none of the frontline probable or aspirants for the PCC prez post, can fasten the loose ends and emerge unequivocally the rallying point.
Sarat Patnaik, a former MP, who has been in the political wilderness for almost a decade, is on the bench. Mohammed Moquem, MLA from Cuttack city, led a sustained campaign at self-aggrandizement is also an aspirant for the top post.
Not no vocally but Taraprasad Bahinipati is believed to be a sleeping claimant to replace Niranjan Patnaik.
Can any of the three hidebound aspirants tide over the factionalism within a party which is infected with imploding dissensions.
There is something boiling underneath which may make any new PCC head hard to regulate things to keep the black sheeps out.
In a scenario where the BJD remains way above the rest, and the BJP had already claimed the political relevance as number two, Odisha should not head towards to become a Congress-mukt state.
