To woo Dalit voters,Cong selects Jena to lead Orissa unit

“I was not surprised by the announcement. Now I would make an effort to get Dalits behind our party in the next election,” Jena,now an MLA,said.

Jena’s son,Sangram Keshari Jena,incidentally,is president of the Orissa Pradesh Youth Congress. He is expected to resign,sources in the party said,to pre-empt allegations of dynastic rule.

Jena’s appointment followed Rahul Gandhi’s meetings with top Orissa Congress leaders Bhakta Charan Das,Srikant Jena,Jayadev Jena and Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra over the last month.

Though Jena did not have much to show for his first term,partly because an influential section in the party looked down upon his Dalit roots,Rahul picked him as the Congress’s best bet to woo its old votebank of Dalits and weaker sections,who are 17 per cent of Orissa’s 4.19 crore population and who have over the past 13 years gravitated towards the ruling Biju Janata Dal,party sources said.

“It is tough to wean away Dalits from the BJD,but a start seems to have been made,” a senior Congress leader said.

Patnaik,meanwhile,is believed to have been ousted because the Congress was wary of the M B Shah Commission,which is investigating the

Rs 65,000-crore mining scam in the state,revealing some Congress leaders’ links with the mining mafia. Patnaik’s sister-in-law is an accused in the scam.