Bhakta Das Resigns As Campaign Committee Head After Congress’ Poor Show In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Taking responsibility of Congress’ poor show in the twin elections in Odisha, senior Congress leader Bhakta Charan Das has resigned from post of Campaign Committee Chairman of the state unit of the party.

“I worked hard to contribute my best but unfortunately we failed to come up to the expectations. I take the moral responsibility of failure to get expected number of seats both in Assembly and Parliament election in Odisha,” he wrote in the letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Das also appreciated the support and cooperation received from the Congress President, former president Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders of AICC during the election.

Though Congress’ mission of ‘nine to 90’ failed miserably in the state, it slightly improved its tally to 14 in the recently-concluded Assembly polls. It also managed to retain the lone Koraput Lok Sabha seat which it had won in last elections.

The party won all Assembly seats in Rayagada district while Sofia Firdous, daughter of former MLA Mohammed Moquim, and Tara Prasad Bahinipati retained Jeypore and Cuttack-Barabati seat, respectively.

However, stalwarts including Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattanayak and Das were defeated by their BJD counterparts from Nuapada and Narla Assembly constituencies. Former OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik also lost to Sanjeeb Mallick of the BJD from Bhandaripokhari seat by a margin of 1,551 votes.

Congress’ vote share also dropped from 16.12 per cent in 2019 to 13.32 per cent in this election.