Niranjan Patnaik emerges frontrunner to become Odisha Pradesh Committee president

Bhubaneswar: Former Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik has emerged as the frontrunner to become the Odisha Pradesh Committee president as most of the party legislators in Odisha Assembly have suggested his name to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for the top post.

Sources in the state Congress said all the 16 MLAs of the party, who had earlier informed Mr Rahul Gandhi about their choice of Mr Patnaik to succeed the incumbent president Prasad Harichandan, have decided to once again meet the Congress vice-president to put further pressure on him to settle the current “instability” in the Pradesh Congress Committee because of the leadership issue.

The Congress MLAs contend that Mr Prasad Harichandan’s weak leadership accounted for the poor show of the Congress in the recently held pachayat polls in the state in which the party finished third, making way for the BJP to replace it in the second spot.