Intra-Party Squabble: Congress Forms Disciplinary Committee For Odisha

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi approved the proposal for the formation of the Disciplinary Action Committee for Odisha on Wednesday.

According to the All India Congress Committee release, Kishore Chandra Patel will chair the committee. Sabitri Choudhury, Sadan Nayak, Pratima Mallick, Bijan Dash, Satyabhusan Sahu, Janaki Ballav Patnaik and RN Mohanty are the other members.

In an address to the party leaders last month, Sonia had called for discipline and unity in the party at a time when Congress is battling rebellion and internal crisis across several states.

Congress in Odisha is plagued by intra-party squabble amid its dismal performance in elections and by-elections in the state. Odisha Congress Committee working president Pradeep Majhi recently quit the Hand party.

The former Nabrangpur MP is the third leader from the undivided Koraput district to desert Congress. Former MLAs Chandrasekhar Majhi and Kailash Chandra Kulesika had earlier resigned from the party.

Senior Congress leader and sitting MLA of Jeypore Tara Prasad Bahinipati had also opposed re-induction of Kulesika in the party and blamed the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik for the intra-party feud in the Koraput district party unit.

Intra-party squabble in the Congress, particularly its youth wing, took a violent turn last month as two groups of party workers ransacked the party headquarters office in Bhubaneswar twice.