In a tit-for-tat act, BJP workers waived black flags at Odisha Tourism and Culture Minister Ashok Chandra Panda and ruling BJD MlA Priyadarshi Mishra in Mumbai on Saturday.
Both leaders were in Mumbai to attend the Biju Patnaik birth centenary celebrations there. Though School and Mass Education and Industries Minister Debi Prasad Mishra was also scheduled to attend the event, he did not turn up at the last moment.
The Odisha BJP unit in Mumbai under the leadership of its president Srikant Padhi showed flags to the Minister and MlA in a hall where Minister Panda was addressing the non-resident Odias.
Shouting anti-BJD and Naveen Patnaik down, down slogans, the protestors also waived the saffron party’s flag and demanded immediate booking of Bargarh BJD MlA Debesh Acharya under Section 307 of IPC for masterminding the attack on Union Minister Santosh Gangwar during his visit to Bargarh to attend the party’s Vikash Utsav.
“We protested the State Government’s attitude in taking actions against the culprits. Though it was crystal clear that BJD workers under the leadership of Bargarh BJD MlA Debesh Acharya attacked the car of Union Minister Gangwar, police are yet to book him,” said Padhi.
He threatened that the Ministers of the BJD Government, including Naveen Patnaik, would be shown black flags in whichever States they visit.