Rourkela: Ahead of AICC president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Rourkela February 6, fissures came to the fore in the city unit of the party when two groups of party workers created a ruckus over the issue of if OPPC president Niranjan Patnaik would contest from Rourkela in coming elections.
Patnaik presided over a meeting of the party workers at Panthniwas and later addressed a press meet here.
Other senior leaders of the party such as Hemanada Biswal, Kishore Chandra Patel, Prafulla Majhi, George Tirkey, Janardan Dehury, Gregory Minz, Prabhat Mohapatra, Rajkishore Sarangi and Benu Madhab Tripathy were present at the meeting.
As Rahul Gandhi will come to the Steel City for the first time, senior leaders of the party unanimously laid stress on successful conduct of the meeting to be held at Aerodrome Ground. Congress leaders laid stress on the need to have a huge crowd at the meeting.
Addressing the meeting, Patnaik urged party workers to join in large numbers in the upcoming meeting.
Launching a scathing attack on the state and the central governments, Patnaik accused both the governments of indulging in multiple scams and irregularities.
Terming the BJD government as corrupt, he urged party cadre to work hard so as to overthrow the corrupt government in the coming polls and install a transparent and efficient government at the state and the centre.
He said that people of the state have understood the gimmicks and tricks of both the governments.
Patnaik asserted that the visit of Rahul Gandhi will have an impact not only in Sundargarh but in the entire state.
However, things turned sour after the meeting. Two groups of party workers bandied words when a senior leader asked if Niranjan is going to contest from Rourkela. Situation tuned embarrassing when the two groups came close to a confrontation.
PNN