BJP DEMANDS EXPULSION OF PRASHANT WHOSE CAR RAN RAMMED INTO CROWD

Bureau,Odishabarta

Bhubaneswar: A day after Chilika MLA Prashant Jagdev’s car ploughed through a crowd leaving 22 people injured, the Opposition BJP on Sunday demanded his expulsion from the ruling BJD claiming that the suspension of the lawmaker from the regional party is an “eyewash”.
The demand was made by senior BJP leader and the party’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra, who met the injured people at a hospital after reaching here from New Delhi. The BJD claimed that the BJP wants to politicise the “barbaric incident” as the ruling party has already sought the strictest action against the suspended MLA.

As many as 22 people, including 10 police personnel and two journalists, were injured on Saturday when the suspended BJD MLA’s vehicle allegedly ploughed through a crowd outside the Banapur BDO’s office in Khurda district where the election for the block chairperson was underway. Jagdev, the MLA from Chilika, was also critically injured as he was roughed up by a mob after the incident. An attempt to murder case was registered against him and he will be arrested after his discharge from the hospital, police said.

Sambit said, “Jagdev was a habitual offender and his suspension from the ruling party was just an eyewash to mislead people. Why has the BJD not expelled its Bahubali (muscleman) MLA despite his involvement in a series of violence?” Jagdev was suspended from the ruling party last year for attacking a Dalit leader of the BJP. He was also accused of assaulting saffron party workers at Manmunda in 2016, attacking Bolgarh tehsildar in 2018 and a staff of Chilika Development Authority in 2020.

“There is no point in putting Jagdev under suspension as he is active in the party. He is participating in all party programmes. He was frustrated as the BJP performed well (in the panchayat election) in two blocks in his Chilika Assembly constituency,” Sambit said.

The senior BJP leader claimed that Jagdev did not just attempt to kill people, but also tried to murder democracy. “The MLA attempted to intervene when the election was underway to elect the chairperson of Banapur block,” he said, claiming that Jagdev’s act has maligned the image of Odisha at the national level.

The BJP leader said his party has won Assembly elections in four States and it has lost in one State, Punjab. However, no violence has been reported in any of these States because the BJP workers never indulge in violence.
When it comes to the case of West Bengal and Odisha, such poll-related violence is being reported. After West Bengal elections, several BJP workers have been killed and in Odisha, so many violent incidents have been reported during the entire panchayat election, Sambit pointed out.

BJP State general secretary Golak Mohapatra announced that the party will launch a Statewide satyagraha demanding stern action against the MLA.
Reacting to the BJP’s accusations, BJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sasmit Patra said that the ruling party on Saturday itself demanded that the police take the strictest action against Jagdev who is “no longer in the party.”

“Despite knowing this truth, if the BJP wants to politicise this barbaric incident, it’s extremely sad and unfortunate,” he said.

When a similar incident took place in a BJP-ruled State, its leaders said it should not be politicised, Sasmit Patra said. He was apparently referring to the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh in which eight people were killed in October last year. Of them, four were farmers who were knocked down by a vehicle. Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son is a key accused in a case relating to the killing of the farmers. “We appeal to the Odisha BJP not to indulge in double standards on such sensitive issues,” the senior BJD leader said.
BJD Rajya Sabha member Munna Khan said, “Never such an incident has happened in our State till yesterday. Our party and leader Naveen Patnaik never encourages any kind of violence. And such incidents should not be tolerated.”