Kendrapara: Despite protest by a handful of supporters of Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, who recently resigned as Health minister in the aftermath of Sum Hospital fire tragedy, MP Baijayant Panda attended the public meeting with chief minister Naveen Patnaik at Mahakalpada in the district today.
Some associates of the former Health minister clashed with police soon after the MP reached the meeting venue. However, thousands raised slogan in support of the parliamentarian.
"Attended Mahakalpada public event with CM. As expected, a handful of planted ppl raised slogans against me vs. thousands in favour of me", Panda mentioned in his tweeter page.
He further tweeted that a few people can’t manhandle somebody when he was surrounded by thousands. "dozen ppl can't manhandle whn 25k cheering support & 100's volunteers surrounding. It was just crowded conditions", he tweeted.
Meanwhile, BJD vice-president and minister Damodar Rout dubbed the incident as most ‘indecent’. "Protesting the MP at the behest of someone is very indecent. Police should not dance to somebody's tune", Rout said while hinting at Atanu.
On the other hand, Nayak feigned ignorance about the protest to local Lok Sabha member. “Protest to the MP has not come to my notice. Some disgruntled people might resort to such activity. It will be not fair to call them as my associates or supporters. In fact, all are the supporters of CM Naveen and nobody else”, Nayak said. The people welcome the person who works for them, said Nayak, who represents Mahakalapada Assembly constituency.
Nayak’s camp had openly threatened the parliamentarian to prevent him from attending chief minister’s programme at Mahakalapada in the district. The MP had tweeted regarding the matter today. He had said he is not afraid of goons and had vowed to attend CM’s programme under any circumstances.