Ex-Odisha CM Giridhar Gamang to quit Cong!

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, May 13:

Fed up with the attitude of the party high command, veteran Congress leader and former Odisha chief minister Giridhar Gamang has reportedly decided to resign from the party.

Informing this to Sambad on Tuesday, his son Sisir Gamang said his father is in no mood to stay in the Congress and has decided to quit the party in 4-5 days.

However, there is no word from the former chief minister on this issue.

Sisir said his the gross indifference of the party leaders in the state and the Centre has deeply hurt his father.

He alleged that some senior party leaders of the state had conspired his defeat in the last elections.

“Though my father had apprised the state leadership to look into the conspiracy of those leaders, the latter did not pay any heed to his request. Besides, the party high commanded also turned a deaf ear to his grievances. If there was a single man (in it), I would have not used the word conspiracy. And this indicates a number of people are involved (in the conspiracy),” Sisir said when asked about the buzz.

“You will see in the next five days that a major change is going to happen,” he added.

Citing another instance, he said his father had had recommended the name of Ram Chandra Ulaka’s son Saptagiri Ulaka to fight from the Rayagada Assembly seat in the last elections.

“Surprisingly, hours before filing of nomination was going to be over, we were informed that somebody else has been given the ticket. What could we have done?” Sisir stated.

“My father lost the election by a margin of 17,000 to 18,000 votes. He could have won it if the equations were different in terms of fielding party’s candidates,” he said.

“Besides, we had asked the party to investigate a poll-related incident in the region. But it was not heard. If a senior leader in the party gets such a response, what a person can expect from the country’s oldest party,” he said.

Sisir said his father, after his return from New Delhi, will take a decision to join another party only after quitting the Congress as he feels that joining another party while remaining in the Congress will be a wrong decision.

Meanwhile, the meeting between Giridhar Gamang and senior BJP leader and Union Tribal Affairs minister Jual Oram in New Delhi has triggred speculations of the former joing the Lotus party.

However, Oram said the meeting was purely informal. “Giridhar Babu is a respected and loving person. He is like my elder brother. He had come to discuss with me about the problems of the tribals in his area”, he maintained.