Cong meet in Bhadrak turns violent, 5 injured

Bhubaneswar: A Congress party meeting at Bhadrak turned into a battlefield on Thursday with two dissident groups clashing with each other leaving five injured. The free-for-all situation erupted with the presence of senior party leaders like AICC general secretary in-charge of Odisha B K Hariprasad and state president Prasad Harichandan.
A constituency-wise panchayat members' meeting was underway at the Town Hall when a section of Congress workers barged into the venue and shouted slogans against Hariprasad.Showing placards saying 'Hariprasad go back' and 'Hariprasad Hatao, Congress Banchao', the dissident Congress workers accused him of making a mess of distribution of tickets during 2014 elections.
All hell broke loose when supporters of Hariprasad allegedly clashed with the agitators disrupting the meeting for nearly an hour. Another section of Congress workers dragged the protesters out of the meeting place and severely thrashed them. Police later rushed to the spot and whisked away the protesters. Though the meeting resumed, both Hariprasad and Harichandan sought to play down the issue of simmering anger within the party. "There is no division within the party. Some unruly people, who do not belong to our party, created trouble," Hariprasad told mediapersons.
Prasad too echoed Hariprasad. "The trouble-makers do not belong to the Congress. The incident did not affect the meeting," Prasad said.
To duck criticism, the Congress has not filed any complaint with the police. "We did not arrest anyone as there is no complaint from anyone. We only rescued the persons, who were beaten up," SP (Bhadrak) Dilip Das told TOI.