‘Black magic’ on former Odisha Speaker’s son Biplab Patro?

Digapahandi block in Ganjam district which was in the news recently because of the infighting in the ruling BJD has once again hogged the headline for the use of alleged ‘black magic’ in politics.

Such debate has now sparked up after a video in which some pictures of Biplab Patro and his associates- Simadri Patro and Zilla Parishad candidate Niranjan Reddy- were found torn near a banyan tree with other puja articles at Anlaguda area went viral. A fish was also found at the spot and it is suspected that it was offered as a sacrifice during the ritual.

It is suspected that someone performed some black magic on Biplab Patro, who is the son of former minister late Surjya Narayan Patro. It is not clear who is behind all such superstitious practices. However, the incident has again brought the focus back on the ongoing infighting in the BJD leaders at Digapahandi.

Recently, Bipin Pradhan’s group emerged victorious block chairman election by trouncing Biplab Patro’s group. And, under such circumstances, suspected black magic on Biplab has created several questions in the mind of people.

"As an educated person, I want to clarify that there is no such black magic and everything is superstition. However, it appears that those, who want to harm Biplab Patro and his supporters, might be behind this,” said Prashant Pradhan, Biplab's supporter.

Prashant said as Biplab is the son of ex-minister SN Patro and holds key posts in BJD, it seems that someone might be trying to move ahead with a lot of aspirants and resorting to such cheap tactics.

Bipin Pradhan, BJD leader said, “I have no idea about this and learnt about it at around 12 noon after a friend showed me the video. This could be some conspiracy by our rivals to defame us. There is no group of Biplab and Prashant is a contractor and his wife is a sarpanch. BJD is one and everybody is together. The viral video could be an attempt to mislead people.”