Odisha Congress leaders meet Rahul Gandhi, discuss organisational issues

NEW DELHI: Amid speculation that changes were likely in state Congress ranks, party leaders from Odisha including Union Minister Srikant Jena on Saturday met Rahul Gandhi in the national capital.

In an hour-long meeting with state Congress leaders, Rahul spoke on "organisational issues" and yesterday's strike in the state by ruling BJD, which is seeking special category status for Odisha.

"We discussed the issues related to party-organisation. The hartal sponsored by BJD in the state yesterday also came up for discussion," Jena told reporters after the meeting.

The party leaders, who accompanied Jena in the meeting, included former PCC chief Jaydev Jena, party MP Bhakta Charan Das and senior leader Lulu Mohapatra.

Meanwhile, PCC chief Niranjan Patnaik, who led a delegation of state leaders, called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek a special financial package for the state.

Expressing concern over the "massive misuse" of central funds in Odisha, the delegation sought a high-level enquiry into the irregularities.

The delegation had met Finance Minister P Chidambaram in this regard on Friday.

"The Prime Minister said that there is no discrimination whatsoever with Odisha as is being claimed by the state government and under the revised guidelines of backwardness, the state would get its due share," Patnaik told reporters.