Chiranjib Biswal Blames Coterie For Working Against Him & Congress In Odisha; To Contest Polls In 2024

Bhubaneswar: Two days after being suspended by Congress for anti-party activities, Chiranjib Biswal on Monday blamed a coterie within the Odisha unit for working against him with an objective to weaken the party.

Addressing a presser here, Chiranjib said that he has been a disciplined Congress worker and continues to remain in the party even after his suspension. “I come from family of Congress. I and my brother have always worked to make Congress stronger,” said the son of former deputy CM and Congress strongman Basant Kumar Biswal.

“After 2019 elections, Congress has seen a decline in vote percentage in subsequent bypolls. The party polled only 150-200 votes in booths in some panchayats. If speaking truth is a sin then I have committed the sin. Someone has to bell the cat. We cannot let the party to decline further,” he said.

In six of the eight bypolls held in the state since 2019, the Congress’s candidates lost their deposits.

Stating that the suspension has pained him, Chirnajib further said that a conspiracy is being hatched in the party unit by some leaders, who have never won an elections and also lost deposits in last 25 years. “Congress has been out of power in Odisha for more than two decades. I have been in politics for 23 years and won the assembly election from Tirtol by a huge margin and again in 2014 from Jagatsinghpur seat despite the BJD wave. I don’t know under whose instructions such conspiracy is being hatched but this has been going on since 1996-98. There is a need to crush this as it aimed at weakening the Congress in constituencies where it still enjoys a good base,” he said.

The two-time MLA said that Congress had won 4 lakh votes in his constituency and urged party activists and workers to save the party from this coterie. “If the Odisha Congress leaders feel that they can achieve the 9 to 99 target without me and my family then I wish them good luck for future,” he said, adding that people of Jagatsinghpur are still with him and he would contest the polls in 2024.

On July 15, the AICC suspended ex-OPCC working president Chiranjib and Cuttack-Barabati MLA Mohammed Moquim for indulging in ‘anti-party activities’ on a complaint by OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak.

Just two days ahead of the Jharsuguda bypoll, Chiranjib had cast aspirations on the party’s Odisha leadership while doubting its revival ahead of the 2024 elections. He had purportedly said that Odisha Congress had only nine MLAs but not less than 20 CM aspirants, which was affecting its unity. He had also expressed doubt whether the party would be able to field candidates in all the 147 Assembly constituencies in the state in the 2024 polls. And this had upset the state party leadership.

On Sunday, the local unit of Congress staged a demonstration and burnt the effigy of OPCC president and warned to intensify protests at different places in Jagatsinghpur Assembly constituency if the Congress leadership did not revoke Chiranjib’s suspension soon.