Cong never gained with seat adjustments: Party's Odisha unit chief

Days after poll strategist Prashant Kishor suggested that the Congress in Odisha should fight alone in the 2024 elections to Lok Sabha and the Assembly, the partys state unit chief, Niranjan Patnaik, on Tuesday said that he, too, was of the same view as seat adjustments have never yielded desirable results.Patnaik also said that the grand old party lost its credibility in some states due to alliances made during polls.He Prashant Kishore is a reputed poll analyst.

Days after poll strategist Prashant Kishor suggested that the Congress in Odisha should fight alone in the 2024 elections to Lok Sabha and the Assembly, the party's state unit chief, Niranjan Patnaik, on Tuesday said that he, too, was of the same view as seat adjustments have never yielded desirable results.

Patnaik also said that the grand old party ''lost its credibility'' in some states due to alliances made during polls.

''He (Prashant Kishore) is a reputed poll analyst. His analysis may be correct. The party has not gained anywhere with seat adjustments,'' Patnaik claimed.

Senior party leader and AICC general secretary Bhakta Charan Das stated that Congress workers should maintain discipline and those not toeing the party line should be ''firmly dealt with''.

Meanwhile, the demand for change of guard in Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) seemed to have intensified, with several leaders insisting that any further delay would only hurt the party.

Jeypore MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati iterated that the state unit should have a new president.

Patnaik had submitted his resignation post the party's debacle in Odisha in the 2019 polls. He is yet to receive a response in the matter from All India Congress Committee (AICC).

Bahinipati on Tuesday suggested that one of nine Congress MLAs in the state should be made the next OPCC chief.

''If that isn’t the case, we will apprise senior leader Rahul Gandhi of our disappointment,'' he said.

Another legislator, Adhiraj Panigrahi of Khariar constituency, said that the AICC should intervene and address the grievances and problems ''plaguing the state unit''.

The party’s Kantabanji MLA, Santosh Singh Saluja, said that the Congress Legislature Party leader should also be changed, along with the state unit chief.