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Storm brewing in Orissa Congress

M I Khan in Bhubaneswar

The leaders of the Congress party in Orissa are back at their old game of fighting each other. Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang, already facing heavy flak from the opposition for his alleged failure to handle relief and rehabilitation following the massive destruction wreaked by the super cyclone in the state, is now under attack from within his party too.

With former chief minister J B Patnaik's followers hinting that they are in no mood to tolerate Gamang any more as chief minister the two factions are headed for a potentially disastrous trial of strength. Despite the high command's decision not to replace Gamang at this juncture when the assembly election is just three months away the critics of Gamang and Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee President Hemanand Biswal have stepped up pressure on the leadership in Delhi to replace the two or face revolt.

"Taking advantage of the crisis in Goa which led to the fall of the Congress government there, the dissidents in Orissa are tightening the screws on the high command to have Gamang and Biswal removed from their respective posts," said a senior Congress leader close to Gamang. If sources in the ruling party are to believed, Patnaik's acolytes, including half-a-dozen ministers, served an ultimatum to the high command on Friday night to remove Gamang by the end of November failing which they will be constrained to chart their own course of action.

With dissident activities gaining momentum, rumours are flying thick and fast about Gamang's removal. Gamang, sources say, is no more in the good books of the Congress president. Senior Congress leaders have started to distance themselves from him and Biswal. This is seen as a move to demonstrate their loyalty to Patnaik's coterie who still enjoy majority support in the Congress Legislature Party.

It may be recalled that over 40 Members of the Legislative Assembly, including some of his ministers, had demanded Gamang's removal and had even camped in New Delhi to convince the party high command about it. But the high command advised these MLAs to shelve this move temporarily and work unitedly for the upcoming assembly elections.

However, this time the dissidents have adopted a resolution in which they have requested Congress president Sonia Gandhi to remove Gamang from the chief ministership. "Gamang is a total failure as far as handling of the post cyclone relief and rehabilitation is concerned," said senior Congress leader and former minister Kishore Chandra Patel.

Besides many ministers, former and current, the four affiliate organisations of the party -- the Mahila Congress, the Seva Dal, the Chatra Congress and the Youth Congress -- are also against Gamang. The Youth Congress president and MLA Lalatendu Mahapatra is one of the leading dissidents campaigning to remove Gamang.

Patnaik's loyalists feel that under Gamang the party may end up with 20 to 30 seats in the coming assembly elections because of his negative image. On the other hand, Gamang's followers are optimistic that at this juncture Sonia Gandhi will not risk appointing someone else at the helm. Going by the recent reverses suffered by the Congress in different states, the party high command may not ignore the dissidents' demand wholly. It is believed that it may come up with a formula that will give more leg room for Patnaik and thus take the wind out of the sails of the dissidents.

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