Bhubaneswar, Nov. 12: Chief whip of the Congress Legislature Party Tara Prasad Bahinipati today said the party could not improve in the state under the leadership of Pradesh Congress Committee president Prasad Harichandan.

He also questioned the ability of the AICC general secretary B.K. Hariprasad to run the party in the state.

"The future of the party under Harichandan's leadership is bleak. If the current situation persists (if Harichandan remains as the leader and does not mend his ways), it will be difficult for the party to even find workers," Bahinipati told The Telegraph.

This is for the first time that an MLA has come out on record against Harichandan and Hariprasad.

It's no secret that all the 16 Congress MLAs, led by Congress Legislature Party leader Narasingha Mishra, wanted a change of leadership in the state.

Although Mishra and the MLAs had met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, senior leaders Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad in New Delhi on October 17 seeking Harichandan's removal, their stance in public has been that their meetings were aimed at strengthening the organisation in view of the panchayat polls.

Bahinipati's salvo against Hariprasad comes at a time when the party leadership had issued showcause notices to two students Congress leaders, who had barged into a meeting and sought to humiliate Hariprasad for not attending the funeral ceremony of party leader Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra.

The Congress leadership at the Centre had asked Hariprasad to sort out the differences between Harichandan and the 16 party MLAs.

Hariprasad, who was to come to Bhubaneswar on October 22, cancelled his visit after he got to know that the MLAs had reportedly decided not to meet him. The MLAs had reportedly expressed their reservations against Hariprasad's ability in mediating between the two sides.

Bahinipati today alleged that the MLAs were also not happy with the "language" that Harichandan's father-in-law, senior leader Suresh Routray, uses against the MLAs and others.

Instead of addressing the issues, he said a section of partymen had started spreading canard that there was an attempt by the MLAs and others to split the party. "We are all Congressmen and we have unflinching loyalty to the Gandhi family. Under no circumstances are we going to leave Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi," he said.

To strengthen the party, Bahinipati said: "The PCC should take all the senior leaders into confidence. It should seek their opinion on how to revamp the party. But I have noticed that the party has become the monopoly of a few leaders. They try to dictate things without assessing the ground reality."

Harichandan refused to comment on the issue.