Odisha Congress, almost decimated following a debacle in the last general elections, seems to be working towards rejuvenating itself.

After the AICC replaced Sarat Pattanayak and appointed seasoned politician and former Union minister Bhakta Charan Das as its new state chief, efforts have begun to revamp the organisation.

Das was appointed the president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on February 11.

As a first step, the OPCC has withdrawn suspension orders from all the party functionaries who had faced former party president Sarat Pattanayak’s ire for not falling in line with him or for acting against the party’s principles.

Veteran Congress leader and former minister Suresh Kumar Routray on Saturday returned to the Congress fold. He said: “I am back home after nine months. I am thankful to Rahul Gandhi, Congress and Bhakta Das for bringing me back to my home.”

Routray was expelled from the Congress for indiscipline and anti-party activities ahead of the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections last year. He was expelled for six years after he attended the campaign of his younger son who contested on a BJD ticket from Bhubaneswar.

The new president will undertake a padayatra from Bhubaneswar to Puri, a distance of 65km on February 18.

The Congress has named its proposed Yatra from Bhubaneswar to Puri as “Sankalpa Yatra”. Party president Das after reaching Bhubaneswar airport from Delhi would embark on the padayatra to the pilgrim town. For this, the party has constituted a 16-member coordination committee.

Das appealed to everyone to join the party, forgetting what happened in yesteryears. “Those who believe in the ideology of the Congress should rejoin the party. All would be welcomed in the party without any condition,” the veteran leader said. However, Das was confident that the Congress would come to power in the next five years. “If the party is voted to power, I will not be the chief minister,” Das said.

Amiya Pandav, the Congress’s firebrand youth leader, said: “It’s a master stroke on the part of Bhakta Charan Das to remove the suspension order.”

The Congress has been out of power since 2000. At present, the Congress has 14 MLAs and one MP. Das, who hails from Kalahandi, and his son Sagar Charan Das is a Congress MLA from Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi.

The AICC also appointed Ajay Kumar Lallu from Uttar Pradesh, the new party in-charge for Odisha. He replaced Ajay Kumar, a leader from Jharkhand as the in-charge for Odisha.