Niranjan urges Bhupinder not to quit Congress

Odisha Sun Times Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Mar 1:

Senior Congress leader Niranjan Patnaik today urged Leader of Opposition in the Odisha Assembly Bhupinder Singh not to quit the party since it needs to fight the coming elections unitedly.

Speculation about Singh quitting the Congress and joining BJD has been rife in political circles after he failed to show up at the selection committee meeting of the party in New Delhi and then went incommunicado on Thursday.

“The Congress party has witnessed many ups and downs. So, the leaders should work united to strengthen the party. Bhupindar has won the confidence of people and party workers for his decisive leadership as the Leader of Opposition,” said Patnaik hoping that he would provide a strong leadership in future as well.

Expressing concern over the resignation of many senior leaders from the party in the last few months, the former PCC president urged all party leaders to work together to strengthen the Congress.

It is to be noted that Congress leaders Rabindra Jena, Umesh Swain, Hemendra Singh, former minister Ramakrushna Patnaik and his wife Kumudini Patnaik, who was an MP, have left the party in the last few weeks. The party received the latest jolt when Shibasankar Ulaka, son of former minister and veteran Congress leader Ram Chandra Ulaka, resigned from the party today. He blamed the leadership for sidelining him.