‘Nominees used Cong tickets for personal gain’

Bhubaneswar: Continuing his tirade against the Congresss state leadership over the party’s humiliating defeat in the elections, senior Congress leader and former Union minister Kanhu Charan Lenka on Friday said almost all first-time candidates of the Congress had bagged tickets for commercial gain.
“I feel sorry that the young candidates, who were given a chance to prove themselves, minted money after getting tickets. They came to the Congress only for business. They pocketed the money the party provided them for the polls. They also took money from their rivals to lose from their respective seats. Only a handful of young and first- time candidates fought the election with honesty and dedication,” Lenka said.
The Congress bagged only nine seats in the 147-seat assembly from 16 in 2014. Out of 147 seats, elections were held in 146 seats this time. Post the drubbing, infighting and revolt cropped up in the party with different leaders blaming each other for the defeat.
Lenka recently came down heavily on Congress state president Niranjan Patnaik for having distributed tickets to many weak and undeserving candidates. “I have apprised the All India Congress Committee of the poll irregularities by our party’s state leadership. Massive restructuring of the party is on the cards in Odisha. Educated and young leaders should be inducted and groomed for 2024 polls,” Lenka said.
Niranjan said Lenka’s suggestions for revamping the party should be acknowledged. “He is a veteran leader. I don’t mind him targetting me. Since I am the president of the party’s state unit, people will obviously take a dig at me. If he has any specific revival plan for the party in Odisha, we should pay attention to him,” Niranjan said.
Earlier in the day, Seva Dal, a frontal grassroots organisation of the Congress, expressed displeasure over being marginalised by the party. At a meeting, the Seva Dal leaders and volunteers said the Congress did not take them into confidence during the elections. “Before the polls, we had proposed to the party to field at least seven MLA candidates from Seva Dal. But not a single candidate from Seva Dal was chosen,” Congress Seva Dals state chief organiser Biren Mohan Pattnaik told TOI.
Seva Dal said the party candidates did not involve the former during campaigning. “We had also suggested the Pradesh Congress Committee that Seva Dal volunteers should be engaged in distribution of the party manifesto in grassroots. But we were completely sidelined,” Pattnaik said.