According to the political observers here, the BJD’s internal conflict in Kalahandi district has come to the fore with the pelting of stones at a Minister during the BJD’s Jan Sampark Padayatra here on Friday.
law and Panchayati Raj Minister Arun Sahoo faced stiff opposition as protesters waved black flags and hurled stones and eggs at him. The projectiles did not hit Sahoo but fell close to him. Forty-seven people were arrested by the town police for the incident.
A BJD man said disgruntled party workers vented their ire because they did not get party tickets for municipality elections though promised by Sahoo, the party’s in-charge for the district.
BJD leader and Bhawanipatna Municipality Chairman Aditya Nanda said, “I want to tell the Congress and the BJP that if they think throwing stones will silence us then they don’t know what we are made of.” Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Bhakta Charan Das had on Thursday distributed leaflets demanding that the State Government take over the private Sardar Rajas Medical College in Kalahandi.