Removal of Bahinipati's wife as dist chief opposed

KORAPUT: Not all seems to be the right within Congress' Koraput unit and at the heart of it is the reported rift between party's four-time Jeypore MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati and debutant Koraput MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka.
On Sunday, 12 zilla parishad members, block Congress presidents and the chairman of Jeypore municipality met state Congress president Sarat Pattanayak in Bhubaneswar, opposing any move to replace Bahinipati's wife Meenakshi Bahinipati as president of Koraput district Congress committee.
They argued that replacing her could harm the party's prospects in the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections, which are less than a year away.
The fissures between Bahinipati and Ulaka became visible when the list of new office bearers of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) was published. Bahinipati expressed his displeasure that his wife was inducted as a PCC secretary, as it suggested her removal from the post of district Congress president and hinted at Ulaka's role in it.
Ulaka, though, denied any bitterness towards Bahinipatihowever, the state Congress chief hinted at the ongoing tension between the MP and Bahinipati.
"The Congress workers from Koraput discussed with me about the prevailing political scenario in the district and steps will be taken to sort it out," said Pattanayak.