Bhubaneswar, Nov. 22: A day after the Pradesh Congress Committee had called a meeting of the chief of the district units to prepare a blueprint for the forthcoming panchayat elections in the state, the Congress Legislature Party today met to discuss the issue.

Congress Legislature Party leader Narasingha Mishra called the meeting of party's 16 MLAs first in the Assembly and later at his official residence to formulate a strategy for the panchayat polls.

However, breaking from custom, Mishra did not invite Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Prasad Harichandan for the meeting.

Party spokesperson Debasis Patnaik said: "It's the convention that the Pradesh Congress Committee chief attends the legislature party leaders' meeting and discusses the strategy to be adopted on the floor of the Assembly."

Later, Mishra said: "As this is the meeting of MLAs, we did not invite the OPCC president. We discussed the strategy for the panchayat elections. We will face the election under the leadership of AICC president Sonia Gandhi. We are hopeful that the party will emerge victorious in the coming panchayat polls."

Party chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati said: "There is no need to invite the party president to the Congress Legislature Party meeting." Bahinipati also criticised Harichandan for not adhering to his stand that he would take all into confidence in running the party.

The rift within the state Congress has been quite visible for the past three months. Though all the 33 district Congress committee presidents were invited to the meet called by the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Harichandan yesterday to finalise a blueprint for the panchayat polls, three party MLAs - Prakash Behera, Debendra Sharma and Nabakishore Das - who head their respective district committees, did not turn up.

The rift between Mishra and Harichandan widened when the latter said that he did not endorse the all-party meeting called by the leader of Opposition on August 3 to resolve the Mahanadi issue. The matter took a turn for the worse after Harichandan called an Odisha strike on August 16 without taking the MLAs into confidence.

Later, supporters of Narasingha Mishra and Prasad Harichandan met AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi and demanded action against each other. Later, Rahul had asked B.K. Hariprasad, state Congress affairs in-charge, to bring about a rapprochement between the warring leaders. Though Hariprasad had flown to Odisha early this month and tried to bring about reconciliation between the two leaders, it failed to yield any results.

Congress MLA Prafulla Majhi said: "The AICC should intervene to solve the dispute. It is affecting the party badly."

Youth killed

A youth was killed when a truck hit his motorcycle from behind at Gate Bazaar in Berhampur on Tuesday. According to reports, the biker died on the spot. Local residents managed to stop the truck and caught hold of the driver. The driver was later handed over to cops and a case has been registered.