BHUBANESWAR: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who once described himself as ‘Sepoy’ of Odisha people seems to have completely forgotten the land and his party state unit. Not only Rahul, his party men have also nearly put out of their mind this province they ruled for over four decades after independence.
Sans due diligence and attention, the Congress now faces an existential crisis in the state.
Rahul Gandhi last visited Odisha in January 2019 when the state went to simultaneous Lok Sabha and State Assembly polls to address a few public meetings. The visit then came after a break of five years as his previous drop in on Odisha was in 2014 during Lok Sabha and State Assembly polls.
The five years gap marked the party’s vote share in the state dropping down from 27.7 per cent in 2014 to 16.12 per cent in 2019 State Assembly polls. Of course, the party won the Koraput Lok Sabha seat to improve upon its previous figure of zero in 2017 general elections. However, this figure of one Lok Sabha seat stood in stark contrast to 20 of the total 21 seats in the 1984 general elections.
The Congress has only nine members in the 147-member Odisha Legislative Assembly.
The continuous rout of the grand old party in successive Odisha elections is largely due to improper attention by the party's central units and never-ending internal bickering in the state unit. As the party’s central leaders overlooked Odisha affairs, potential state leaders were poached by the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Majority of the voters in Rahul’s favourite tribal pockets – the mineral rich Koraput, Rayagada, Kalahandi, Sundergarh, Keonjhar and Bolangir, have shifted since long in favour of the BJD.
The tribal dominated South Odisha, rich in bauxite, had seen many protests being led by Rahul Gandhi in the first decade of the present century when attempts were made by the Naveen Patnaik government to lease out mines to a particular multinational aluminium manufacturing company. Rahul had then described him as Sepoy of tribals in Odisha and declared to defend their land against any acquisition bid.
As Odisha gets ready for the simultaneous 2024 Lok Sabha and State Assembly polls, the present Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) chief Sarat Pattanayak, who is a strict disciplinarian and has palpably held the residue entity of the party in state, has been striving hard to revive the organisation. He is well-supported by Odisha’s former chief secretary Bijay Patnaik.
Bijay Patnaik joined the Congress last year. He has been appointed as OPCC campaign committee chairperson for the 2024 elections.
