Political fraternity condemns attack on MP Baijayant Panda

Bhubaneswar: The political fraternity displayed strong support to Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda who was attacked by protesters during the inauguration of an overhead water tank project in Mahanga today. Despite inter party differences, leaders from major political parties condemned the attack on the MP who launched the water project amid hundreds of supporters.

Within BJD, spokesperson Pratap Deb called the incident unfortunate. “This happened due to lack of communication among the party block level workers and MP’s office. The party supremo will look into the matter,” he said. Agriculture minister Damodar Rout washed his hands off saying he should not comment on the incident while party spokesperson and co-operation minister Surya Narayan Patro said this is a local issue and local level workers, MLA and MP will sort it out.

BJP leader and Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan condemned the attack and termed it ‘undemocratic’. “Attack on an MP while he was inaugurating a welfare project constructed from his LAD fund is not an example of a healthy democracy. It happened due to political indifference and personal ego among their leaders,” Pradhan said.

BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma also criticised the attacks and said even though the situation was known since the last three days, no action was taken by the CMO to give protection to the MP. “This is an attack on all those who dare to differ in opinion. All democratic parties should speak against the incident,” he said.

While Congress veteran Suresh Routray opined that this is just another incident of infighting in the party that is all set to break BJD, legislator Prafulla Majhi from the party slammed the attack on Panda saying people know that BJD runs on goondaism and bureaucrats run this government.