Bombs hurled in group clash at Cong office

Bhubaneswar: The internecine war in the State unit of Congress spilled onto the street when two warring groups, locked in the ongoing organizational polls to its student wing, clashed with each other and hurled crude bombs leaving three injured in the party headquarters here this evening.

According to sources, some irate supporters of a group torched the ballot boxes and hurled hand-made bombs into the party office during the election of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) which was being held under the supervision of party observers from Delhi.

Senior Congress leader and former minister Suresh Kumar Routray, however, alleged that some outsiders and non-Congress persons hurled hand made bombs to disrupt the polling held in the Congress Bhavan campus. "No Congress man is involved in the incident," Routray claimed.

The police recovered some half burnt ballot papers and ballot boxes from the Congress Bhavan campus where additional deployment of force was made in view of the situation.

The polling process was disrupted due to the violence. However, no arrests had been made till the last report came in.