Senior leader of Odisha unit of Congress Mohammad Mukim wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi raising questions on the leadership of state president Bhakta Charan Das.
Das was appointed president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) in February.
State unit chief Das did not immediately comment on the allegation.
Mukim, in a letter written on Wednesday indicating dissent in the party, said Das was appointed the state unit president earlier this year despite losing three consecutive elections and being associated with ‘anti-Congress political ideology’.
The former MLA from Barabati-Cuttack also questioned the public support given by the state president and his MLA son Sagar for a separate ‘Kosala state’ and claimed that this stance has created a sense of ‘deep unrest’ among the party workers.
Mukim described Congress’s crushing defeat in the by-election on Naupada Assembly seat as another proof of the diminishing public confidence.
Mukim was also involved in the race for the post of state unit president in February.
“When a leader fails to command the confidence of his own constituency, workers naturally lose confidence in his leadership and question his ability to lead the party in Odisha,” he wrote in the letter.
He told that Congress had to face defeat on this seat by about 83,000 votes.
The former MLA said that “thousands of grassroots Congress workers” are now feeling confused, demoralized and directionless.
