Niranjan gets rousing reception

Newly-appointed Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik was accorded a rousing reception by the party’s rank and file on his return here from New Delhi on Saturday.

Patnaik, whose installation as the State Congress chief has elated a vast majority of the party members with a hope that he would provide the party a strong leadership ahead of the general elections next year, was received by thousands of party members and supporters at the airport here in the evening. He was accompanied by AICC in-charge for Odisha Jitendra Singh.

He was taken in a large motorcycle procession from the airport to the Congress Bhawan, where he was given a reception. Patnaik’s predecessor-PCC president Prasad Harichandan, who also joined the reception, said that he is confident that Patnaik would successfully lead the party in the 2019 general elections. The people have faith on him, he said.

Unlike the State’s other opposition party, the BJP, the Congress has a strong organisational base at the grassroots level, Harichandan said, adding that all the party leaders and workers would unite and give a tough fight in the opponents in the elections.