Gamang in Delhi to meet Sonia, crisis in Orissa deepens

AICC observers Madhavrao Scindia and Vayalar Ravi, who met a large number of party MLAs at Bhubaneshwar since yesterday, also flew to Delhi separately. Scindia told reporters they will apprise Gandhi of the party MLAs’ sentiments, saying they could not be ignored. But asked whether Gamang would be replaced, he said, "I don’t know."

Earlier, Governor M M Rajendran in the wee hours of Wednesday, ordered postponement of the winter session of the State Legislature beginning Thursday to December 10 on the advice of the State Cabinet.

He was apprised of the Cabinet decision by Gamang late Tuesday night.

A Congress Legislature Party meeting scheduled for the day also did not take place, with Gamang leaving for Delhi.

Scindia said Gamang has sought an appointment with Gandhi to apprise her of the latest.

The mood in the rival faction camp indicated that the crisis had only worsened. The dissidents are insistent that AICC observers hold a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting to elect a new leader replacing Gamang by Wednesday evening. Anti-Gamang faction sources said if the Chief Minister or the CLP secretary failed to convene the meeting they would be forced to hold the meeting to pass a resolution removing Gamang as the leader.

However, a Bhubaneshwar report quoting party sources said the dissident camp was divided with supporters of senior leader Basanta Kumar Biswal backing out of the replace Gamang’ campaign and former chief minister J B Patnaik for Gamang’s removal.

Patnaik’s supporters argued that a majority of the 64 MLAs who met the two AICC observers Tuesday night had categorically favoured a change in leadership. However, noone in the Gamang or Biswal camps was willing to go on record on a fresh alignment of forces.

The dissidents claimed that Sonia had already indicated that a consensus view should be taken on the question of leadership change and Gamang had been sounded by the high command to step down. But Gamang’s supporters argued that no such directives had been received from the high command till this afternoon. The Chief Minister’s action in postponing the Assembly session had also come under severe criticism from the opposition political parties who demanded immediate dismissal of the Congress government “for its total failure of the relief operation and the violation of the constitution in deferring the Assembly session”.

Soon after his arrival in the Capital, Gamang left for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to see his ailing son. The AICC observers were expected to reach here later Wednesday night.