BJD protesters pelt stones at minister's car

Bhubaneswar/Sambalpur: The BJP-BJD tussle turned ugly on Friday with the BJD workers pelting Union minister of state for textiles Santosh Gangwar's car with stones at Bargarh in western Odisha, around 400km from the state capital.
While the minister escaped unhurt, the window shield of his car was damaged. Police detained 80 persons, including Bargarh MLA and BJD leader Debesh Acharya.
The minister, who came to Odisha on a two-day visit starting Thursday, was in Bargarh along with MoS food processing Niranjan Jyoti and former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda to celebrate Vikash Utsav, marking two years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
The BJD workers led by the Bargarh MLA showed black flags to the BJP leaders while they were returning from Birjam village in Sohela block after distributing Mudra loan to attend a party event. Some of the protesters managed to stone Gangwar's car apparently taking advantage of police laxity at Mahatma Gandhi chowk inside Bargarh town, less than 200 metre from where the event was scheduled.
Calling the incident unfortunate, Gangwar said, "It is a reflection of the fact that the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government has achieved nothing in its 16 years of governance. They are frustrated by comparisons with their 16 years here with two years of Modi at the Centre." Nirajan Jyoti said when Union ministers are not safe in the state, the plight of common people can well be imagined.
Debesh Acharya, nephew of recently-elected BJD Rajya Sabha member and former minister Prasanna Acharya, said they were not involved in the violence. "We protested against the Union government's failure in controlling price rise of essential commodities, indifference to repeated demands of increase in minimum support price (MSP) of paddy and towards weavers' plight in the state in a peaceful manner. Let the police probe the matter," the MLA said.
Intra-BJD politics by two different factions, one led by Acharya and the other led by BJD Bhatli MLA Sushant Singh, to outdo each other in exhibiting their strength before the chief minister is behind the unsavoury episode, a BJD insider said.
Police said action will be taken against the guilty. "It is an unfortunate incident. I am taking stock of the situation. Some people have been detained in this connection. We are verifying the video evidence. Action will be taken after that," said DIG, Northern Range, Prateek Mohanty.
It was the fifth Vikas Utsav event in Odisha after Modi addressed a rally at Balasore on June 2, followed by party events in Rourkela, Bhubaneswar and Berhampur.