The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Sunday expelled five youth leaders for six years in connection with the ink attack on Pradesh Congress president Sarat Pattanayak at the Congress Bhawan on Friday.

The party’s disciplinary committee expelled OPCC general secretary Prakash Mishra, general secretary of the women’s wing Sriyasmita Panda, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) secretary Sandip Routray, state Youth Congress secretary Amresh Parida and NSUI state secretary Aryan Sasmal following an internal inquiry.

The disciplinary committee chairman Santosh Singh Saluja described the attack as “indiscipline and damaged the party’s image” in a report.

The Congress workers hurled ink at Pattanayak on Friday while he was at the Congress Bhawan and preparing to attend a protest rally against the NEET paper leak.

Pattanayak said that the attack had been orches-trated by the BJP sympathisers and its workers to thwart their plan of protesting against the NEET paper leak. Insiders were of the view that it was the work of a section of disgruntled party workers who were annoyed with Pattanayak’s style of functioning.

Sources in the Congress office said many party workers were upset with the
performance in the recently concluded general elections and felt that the lacklustre leadership of the state unit was responsible for the poor performance. They had hoped Pattanayak would step down voluntarily immediately after the party’s disappointing show in the
last elections.