JB Patnaik on his way out as PCC chief

NEW DELHI, NOV 27: In A move that could have far-reaching ramifications in Orissa politics, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is seriously conte...

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NEW DELHI, NOV 27: In A move that could have far-reaching ramifications in Orissa politics, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is seriously contemplating removal of former state chief minister J.B. Patnaik from the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief’s post.

Party sources said the veteran leader was likely to be replaced by a tribal or Dalit leader from the state. The names of former chief minister and tribal leader Hemananda Biswal and former PCC vice-president Lakshman Malik, a Dalit, are already doing the rounds in party circles as likely replacements.

Patnaik, who is camping in Delhi, met Sonia over the weekend, where the latter reportedly informed him of the move to replace him. Sonia is learnt to have told Patnaik that his services were better needed by the party at the centre and even offered him a berth in the new Congress Working Committee (CWC) to be reconstituted next month. He was even asked by Sonia to suggest one or two names who could succeed him. Patnaik left the decision of his removal and the choice of the new successor to Sonia.

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A meeting to be attended by senior party leader Madhavrao Scindia, AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad and Patnaik has been scheduled tomorrow to take a final decision on who will be Orissa’s new PCC chief.

Patnaik was not available for comment despite efforts to reach him.

While the ostensible reason behind the move to replace Patnaik is to better utilise his services in Delhi since Orissa isn’t going to have elections for a long time to come, party circles feel this is also the result of the bitter ongoing feud in the state unit between Patnaik and Biswal. For sometime now, Biswal has been leading a sustained campaign for Patnaik’s removal from the PCC chief’s job, accusing the latter of sidelining tribals and Dalits.

In fact, Biswal, along with other tribal leaders from the state, carried his complaints against Patnaik to Sonia again after the recent organisational elections of the party, charging him with packing the list of PCC delegates with his men and ignoring tribals, who comprise a large section of the state’s population.

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The move to replace Patnaik has however not gone down well with a section of the Congress leadership from Orissa, which feels that the veteran leader’s presence in the state is essential for the party to take on the Navin Patnaik government and keep the party together. Patnaik is the Congress’s most visible face in Orissa, having held the chief minister’s post as many as three times.

He ruled the state till early 1999, when he was sacked by Sonia following the brutal klling of Christian missionary Graham Staines and his children in the state. He was subsequently made PCC chief after Biswal, who was holding the post, was made chief minister in place of Giridhar Gamang.

While Patnaik’s replacement seems likely, the high command is still to decide the fate of two newly-appointed PCC chiefs, S.P. Jaiswal in Uttar Pradesh and E.V.K.S. Elangovan. It, however, appears that Sonia might continue with them to give them more time to settle down.