BHUBANESWAR: Congress president Rahul Gandhi is likely to visit the state next month to oversee the party's preparations for the 2019 Lok Sabha and assembly elections.Though the date of Rahul's visit has not been finalized, the newly approved Congress coordination committee in the state on Monday discussed ways to ensure the party's success in the polls. The 31-member coordination committee, approved by Rahul on July 14, is led by All-India Congress Committee's Odisha in-charge Jitendra Singh."We discussed the roadmap for the future and the ways to strengthen Congress at the grassroots. By Lord Jagannath's grace, we will be back in Odisha," state Congress president Niranjan Patnaik said.Niranjan's optimism stands in sharp contrast to his party colleague and Salepur MLA Prakash Chandra Behera, who recently predicted that BJD would retain power in 2019. Niranjan, who was made the state Congress president on April 19, is leaving no stone unturned to revive the party's crumbling base in Odisha. He has admitted that Congress had been out of power since 2000 because of the 'arrogant attitude of the leaders and allegations of corruption'.Sources said the Congress coordination committee discussed the issues the party would raise during Rahul's proposed meeting with all Pradesh Congress Committee presidents and AICC in-charges next week. All state presidents of Congress have been asked to brief Rahul about the party's strengths and weaknesses in their respective areas. "We will apprise Rahulji of the electoral history of the constituencies here, their demographic details and our targeted vote share," a senior leader said.State Congress working president Naba Kishore Das said the party supporters were upbeat. "We are working hard to galvanise our supporters," he added.Sources said Congress had finalized candidates for at least 80 of the 147 assembly seats here and sent the names to the party high command for approval. Congress had earlier said youngsters and women would be given priority in ticket distribution. At present, the party has 15 MLAs in the assembly.

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