Rahul Gandhi

Bhubaneswar, April 27: A meeting between four senior Congress leaders and Rahul Gandhi today has given rise to speculations that the state Congress may shortly be revamped.

This is the second time that Rahul met the four leaders — Union minister Srikant Jena, MP Bhakta Charan Das, AICC secretary Jaydev Jena and former OPCC working president Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra — after his two-day visit to Odisha where he had interacted with grassroots-level party workers on February 19.

Rahul had earlier dropped hints of revamping the party’s organisational network in the state. He had called the four leaders earlier on March 25.

Today’s meeting lasted for an hour. However, the leaders refused to divulge what transpired at the meeting.

Union minister Srikant Jena told newspersons: “Rahul discussed party affairs. If the party takes any decision, all of you will be intimated. You will also know if the party does not take any decision.”

However, Jaydev Jena said: “Rahul discussed party’s organisational issues. He may take some steps. He had asked us earlier to give in writing the steps that should be taken to rejuvenate the party in the state. We have done that.”

Lok Sabha member from Kalahandi Bhakta Charan Das said: “We discussed about strengthening the party and about the programmes that our party should initiate to counter the Naveen Patnaik government. We also apprised him of the Naveen Patnaik government’s diatribes against the UPA government.”

Incidentally, while these four leaders met Rahul on the issue of strengthening the organisation, state Congress president Niranjan Patnaik, Opposition leader Bhupinder Singh and Congress chief whip Prasad Harichandan met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today and demanded that the state should be given special-category status.

Niranjan Patnaik said: “The Prime Minister has said that there is no discrimination whatsoever with Odisha as is being portrayed by the state government and under the revised guidelines of backwardness the state would get its due share.”

“The Prime Minister also said that there was no special proposal from Odisha for the plan panel and hence the question of discrimination does not arise. Odisha has been a priority of the UPA government in last nine years and has received generous funds. The BJD is doing politics with the issue of special-category state status,” said the state Congress president.