Dissolution of the OPCC has intensified speculations about the new state unit president (Representative Image)

BHUBANESWAR: All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Sunday dissolved the Odisha Pradesh Congress unit, including its chief Sarat Pattanayak, paving the way for a complete restructuring of the party in the state in the wake of its poor electoral show.
“The Congress president has approved the proposal of the complete dissolution of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee, including the president, office-bearers and executive committee, district/block/mandal Congress committees, frontal organisations, departments and cells, with immediate effect.The current district presidents will serve as acting presidents,” read the order issued by AICC general secretary K C Venugopal.
Dissolution of the OPCC has intensified speculations about the new state unit president. Speculation is that former Union minister Bhakta Das, Jeypore MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati, former MLA Mohammed Moquim and former OPCC presidents Prasad Harichandan and Jayadev Jena are among the contenders for the post.
Pattanayak and AICC’s Odisha in-charge Ajoy Kumar had been facing massive resentment over the party’s poor show in the recent elections. Recently, some Congress members hurled ink at Pattanayak in the Congress Bhawan here. Five members, including a woman, were subsequently expelled from the party for the incident for six years. The state leadership was also under fire over alleged mismanagement in the distribution of tickets and last-minute change of candidates in several constituencies.
Ahead of the elections, OPCC had set an ambitious goal of increasing its assembly seat count from 9 in 2019 to 90 in 2024. While the party did manage to improve its tally slightly, securing 14 assembly seats, its vote share declined from 17% in 2019 to 13.26% this time. In the Lok Sabha election, Congress succeeded in retaining its lone seat of Koraput, which it had won in 2019.
AICC had formed a two-member committee consisting of senior leaders Ajay Maken and Tariq Anwar to analyse the reasons for the party’s subpar performance.
Experts said Congress has an opportunity to reorganise its base in the state after BJD’s downfall. “Congress has shown signs of revival in the Lok Sabha polls. State leaders should now re-look at their strategies to gain ground to replace BJD as the main opposition. Since BJP is the main rival of Congress at the Centre, the fight between the two in Odisha would be keenly watched in the future,” said political analyst Debasis Das. Congress could have bettered its show this time had they picked the right candidates and not changed nominees for some seats at the last moment, he added.