ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Patnaik offers to quit PCC and CWC posts

Orissa Chief Minister J B Patnaik on Sunday offered to quit both as Pradesh Congress Committee president as well as a Congress Working Committee member.

Patnaik made this offer after two separate meetings with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday and Sunday.

Patnaik, who was in the capital for three days last week to brief the Congress high command about the clashes at the party state headquarters in Bhubaneswar, said he made this offer to Sonia to give her a free hand to revamp the PCC as well as the CWC.

Patnaik said the Congress fact-finding committee, headed by former Union minister K Karunakaran, which was sent by Sonia to find out the reasons for the party's debacle in the Lok Sabha election in the state, will submit its report to the party president on April 30.

"I have been telling the leaders that I was willing to quit the posts as I believe in the one-man one-post principle," Patnaik said, adding that he was continuing as PCC chief only since a majority of the people wanted him.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report