Following the AICC’s notification on Saturday that no PCC presidents would be replaced for the time being, the dissidents in the Odisha unit of the Congress on Sunday renewed their demand for change of the PCC leadership.
The rebels, particularly MLAs, said replacement of PCC chief Prasad Harichandan is needed immediately to rejuvenate the party ahead of the upcoming Bijepur Assembly by-election and the next year’s general elections. Sundargarh MLA Yogesh Singh said, “We will still continue to seek a change in the PCC leadership. Without taking names, he questioned how can a person who is not able to lead the party in his own constituency lead it in the whole State?”
Similarly, Jeypore MLA Tara Prasad Bahinpati said, “Whatever decision the AICC president takes, they will abide by that. But we want Niranjan Patnaik to lead the party to save the Congress in the State.
But senior leader Srikanta Jena refuted any claim of infighting in the party. Jena said it is the prerogative of the AICC president as to who should be appointed as the PCC president. Any individual is not important for the party. The elections would be fought under the banner of the Congress.
However, PCC president Harichandan said, “It is not ‘I’ but ‘we’. We are trying to take everybody with us and we would fight the elections together.”