Niranjan Patnaik appointed Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president again

NEW DELHI: Revamping its Odisha unit, the Congress today named Niranjan Patnaik as the new party president in the state, replacing Prasad Harichandran, and appointed three working presidents.nnThis will be Patnaik’s third stint as the OPCC president. he was  replaced former minister K P Singh Deo in 2011 and 2013 Patnaik was replaced as OPCC president Jaydev Jena.nnParty chief Rahul Gandhi approved the appointment of Naba Das, Chiranjiv Biswal (both MLAs) and Pradeep Majhi, a former MP, as working presidents of the party unit in Odisha where assembly elections are due in mid-2019.nnBesides, the party appointed former MP Bhakta Charan Das as chairperson of the campaign committee and former union minister and AICC incharge of state Congress affairs Jitendra Singh as chairperson of the coordination committee, with Jagannath Patnaik as the panels convener.nnFormer PCC chief Jaidev Jena has been appointed the chairperson of the Core Committee, while Sarat Patnaik, who has also been a former PCC chief, has been made the convener of the Core committee.nnFormer chief minister Hemananda Biswal has been made the chairperson of the disciplinary committee while former union minister Srikant Jena has been made chairman of the manifesto committee with Sarat Rout as the panels convener.nn”The party appreciates the work done by Prasad Harichandran, who is stepping down from his responsibility as PCC president, Odisha,” a statement from AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot said.nnJitendra Singh later told reporters that the revamped Congress unit will work towards strengthening the party in the state to ensure its victory in the 2019 assembly elections. The tenure of the 147-member Odisha assembly ends on June 11, 2019 and elections are due before that.