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Gamang to remain in the saddle for the time being

M I Khan in Bhubhaneswar

Orissa Chief Minister Gridhar Gamang has proved lucky once again. The All India Congress Committee observers who came to Bhubhaneswar yesterday to announce a change at the helm made it clear that this issue will be decided by the party high command. This indicates that Gamang still enjoys the support of the Congress president Sonia Gandhi who, in February last, got him to replace J B Patnaik.

A three member AICC team comprising former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Motilal Vohra and senior leaders Vayalar Ravi and Ramesh Chennithala arrived yesterday to decide the leadership issue in the state Congress. Last evening the observers hinted that something will emerge from the discussions with the party leaders on Saturday.

It may be recalled that the party high command had sent Madhav Rao Scindia and Vayalar Ravi on Tuesday to Orissa on a similar mission but they failed to come up with anything despite consulting the party's MLAs and leaders.

The four-day long farce over the change of leadership in the ruling Congress continued with the AICC observers announcing today that the leadership issue will ultimately be decided by Sonia Gandhi. The only benefit to the party from the whole exercise is that it was able to present a united face before the media and managed to hide the fact, if only temporarily, that the Congress is a divided house in the state.

Almost all the senior Congress leaders, including Gamang, former chief minister J B Patnaik, state Congress president Hemanand Biswal, senior cabinet minister Basant Biswal and another former chief minister Nandini Satpathy after their meeting with the AICC observers came out with a statement that they have full faith in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and that they have decided to work together for the ensuing assembly elections for the success of the party. They also said that they will work together for the relief and rehabilitation of the cyclone victims.

Reliable sources in the Congress told rediff.com that during the AICC observers' consultation with the party's MLAs and leaders, the mood was clearly for a change in leadership. "Out of 76 party's MLAs who met the AICC observers to present their views only 28 MLAs were in support of Gamang," the sources said.

The heads of the party's affiliate organisations including the Youth Congress, the Mahila Congress, the Seva Dal and the Chatra Congress were also in favour of a change of leadership.

On the other hand the supporters of Gamang tried to impress on the AICC observers that there was no need for a change of leadership because at this juncture it would send a wrong signal to the people -- that the Congress is more interested in power politics than the distribution of relief materials to the state's suffering populace.

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