3 months after polls, Odisha Congress to introspect on debacle

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury
Bhubaneswar, Aug 25:

Three months after the severe drubbing in the general and assembly polls, the Odisha Congress has finally decided to hold an introspection meeting on August 27-28 to analyse the reasons for the debacle.

“All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and state party in-charge BK Hariprasad and AICC secretary Subhankar Sarkar would discuss with the state leaders the reasons for the worst ever defeat of the party in the twin polls held in April this year,” said PCC president Jaydev Jena.

The two leaders would meet the presidents of all 33 organisational districts in the state on August 27. The next day, the two leaders would hold one-to-one meeting with the candidates of all 147 assembly and 21 lok sabha constituencies in order to find out the reasons behind the poll debacle, Jena said.

All district presidents, block presidents, MP and MLA candidates have been called to attend the two days’ assessment at the party headquarters here.

Sparks are certain to fly in the meeting with the dissidents sharpening their knives to take on the state leadership for its alleged acts of omission and commission, sources int he party said.

Notably, The Anthony Committee appointed by the AICC has already made it clear that the party lost a golden opportunity in Odisha due to lack of coordination among leaders and cited internal bickerings within the party as one of the major reason for the debacle.

While the party failed to open its account in the Lok Sabha polls, it managed to secure only 16 seats, 10 less than what it managed in the previous elections in 2009.