Former MP Sarat Patnaik will succeed veteran leader Niranjan Patnaik as the president of the party in Odisha.
This is Sarat Patnaik’s second stint as party’s State president as he had already served in the post from June 2001 till May 2004.
Sarat Patnaik was appointed as OPCC chief around a week after several Congress leaders from the State including the MP and MLAs met former AICC president Rahul Gandhi at party’s headquarters in New Delhi.
In Odisha, the Congress has been decimated since the Biju Janata Dal came to power and has been ruling the state for more thsn two decades, while Congress is in its weakest position in the state and unable to revive itself.
The first test will be upcoming election for cooperative bodies,as in the first phase, the elections to more than 6,000 primary societies will be held on June 19 and June 26 and after this process is over, the election to central and apex societies will be held.