Bhubaneswar, Dec. 3 :    Bhubaneswar, Dec. 3:  Orissa PCC president J.B. Patnaik was today 'unanimously' re-elected to the post, temporarily upstaging the dissidents' gameplan of getting him replaced. So convincing was Patnaik's victory that his worst critics in the party, Kanhu Charan Lenka and Basant Kumar Biswal, stood as proposers for his nomination papers. A total of 24 nomination papers were filed in favour of Patnaik yesterday. However, prominent dissident leader and aspirant for the post, Hemananda Biswal, stayed away from the proceedings. Patnaik's re-election was just a formality after AICC president Sonia Gandhi decided to give some more time to the veteran leader to put his house in order. Earlier, the PCC, in a resolution, had authorised Gandhi to nominate the new president. This would be Patnaik's fifth term as president of the party in the state. In 1999, he was given the post after the then president, Hemananda Biswal, resigned in the wake of the party's debacle in the Lok Sabha polls. After his re-election, Patnaik told newsmen that he would announce the names of the new office-bearers of the PCC within a week. 'The party would be galvanised and all efforts would be made to make the party look dynamic,' he said. When asked about the dissident leaders who had opposed him, Patnaik said the leaders could have contested against him in the election. 'But all these are things of the past. As disciplined soldiers of the party, they have supported Gandhi's decision,' he said. Though Patnaik's election was unanimous, dissidence in the party hereafter cannot be ruled out. Though all the dissident leaders in the party are crestfallen after the wily Patnaik managed to hold on to his post, they have not lost all hope. Prominent dissident leader Kanhu Charan Lenka said they had to obey the diktats of the high command. 'We had authorised Sonia Gandhi to nominate the next president. She has let known her decision. Let's see if the new president takes leaders of all factions along with him while reconstituting the PCC,' Lenka told The Telegraph. Lenka said the PCC president should accommodate leaders of all sections in various cells of the party if he were serious about revitalising the party. 'For the time being, the new PCC president can count on my support. But let's see how he works,' said Lenka, giving a hint of the shape of things to come. Woman killed: A tusker from the Chandka elephant sanctuary, which strayed from a herd of elephants, today killed an old woman near the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology here. The 65-year-old woman, Gunei Sahoo was returning home from Baramunda bus stand when she crossed the path of the herd near the university field. The tusker chased the woman and stabbed her on her neck with its pointed tusks, killing her on the spot.