AICC To Decide Srikant Jena’s Fate: Hemananda

Bhubaneswar: The Disciplinary Committee of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Wednesday decided to leave the decision on action against senior leader Srikant Jena with the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

Briefing mediapersons after presiding over the OPCC Disciplinary Committee meeting, its chairman, Hemananda Biswal, said that the meeting discussed the unruly and indiscipline behaviour of Jena.

“The opinion of the members of the Disciplinary Committee on Jena will be sent to the AICC. Since he is an AICC member, the latter will decide the course of action to be taken against him,” he added.

Commenting on the issue, Jena said he has no knowledge about breaching the party discipline. “If the PCC and the AICC asks me about the matter, I will have my reply to them. But I can confidently say that I have never indulged in any mining theft case in my life and received any stricture from the court in any bribery case.

The AICC on December 6 had removed Jena as the chairman of the OPCC Manifesto Committee and appointed Ganeswar Behera in his place.

A day after his the ouster, Hemananda had told the media that Jena was removed for indiscipline.

Jena had recently criticised the leadership of the OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik and had suggested the name of the Odisha in-charge, Jitender Singh a member of the backward community, as the chief minister candidate of the party.

“While preparing the preface of the party’s manifesto as the chairman, I had mentioned that if Congress comes to power in Odisha, the party should select a leader of the backward community as chief minister. I had also mentioned about confiscation of properties of the mining mafia in the state. The AICC leader and Odisha in-charge Jitender Singh had requested me not to make the preface public. But I asked him to keep me out of the committee if he disagreed with the preface. Now, I am happy that he has removed me from the committee,” Jena had told the media soon after his ouster from the Manifesto Committee.