Bhubaneswar: The speculation over the next Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president gathered momentum with selection committee member Charan Das Mahant arriving in Bhubaneswar on Monday.
He is scheduled to attend a meeting at party headquarters here.
“I am here to meet our people on the direction of Congress high command. There will be discussions on how to strengthen the party in the state in the coming days. I will hear them out and convey the same to party leadership,” he told reports.
The deliberation is likely to centre around leadership and organisational reforms to revitalise the Odisha unit, which has been struggling to stay relevant in state politics.
Responding to queries on hectic lobbying for the state party chief post, Mahanta, who is the leader of Chhattisgarh Congress legislature party, said that he is a person with no lobby. “Lobbying does not work with me,” he added.
Though Mahanta along with senior leader Meenakshi Natarajan was scheduled to visit Odisha on October 26 and 27 to meet party leaders here in connection with selection of the state president, it was deferred due to Cyclone Dana.
He further stated that a decision on state unit president is unlikely anytime time soon due to the elections in Jharkhand, which is scheduled to be held in two phases —November 13, and November 20. “Even if we submit the report, they will not be able to go through it till the results are declared on November 23. Following this, we will hold discussions with the high command and if required will visit the state again,” he added.
He, however, declined to comment on the likely names for the OPCC chief.
According to party insiders, former union ministers Srikant Jena and Bhakta Charan Das, and former MLA Mohammed Moquim have emerged as frontrunner for the post. The names of Koraput MP Saptagiri Ulaka and former OPCC president Prasad Harichandan are also doing the rounds.
Notably, the Odisha Congress is being run by a 15-member coordination committee after the AICC dissolved the party’s state unit and dismissed all state office-bearers, including the state president Sarat Pattanayak, following its dismal performance in 2024 twin polls in the state, on July 21.
Apart from this, all the district, block and divisional committees of the party in Odisha were also dissolved.
