BHUBANESWAR: Opposition Congress and BJP on Thursday demanded resignation of Bhubaneswar Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena after an objectionable video clip purportedly featuring him and two others went viral on social media. However, Jena refuted the charge and said he was not the man in the video.
Raising the issue through a point of order in the Assembly, Congress Chief Whip Taraprasad Bahinipati said the Mayor should resign immediately. “Why is the Chief Minister silent?”, he asked and demanded a high level inquiry into the matter.
Demanding resignation of Jena over the issue, Bhubaneswar district president of BJP Harekrushna Khuntia announced that party activists will demonstrate in front of the office of Commissionerate of Police if the Mayor does not resign by Thursday night.
Earlier, the student wing of Congress, in a press conference, demanded resignation of Jena and a CBI probe into the matter. State NSUI president Itish Pradhan also alleged Jena’s ‘involvement’ in the death of an engineering student here.
However, the Mayor said, “The man in the video is certainly not me. I am not at all the person in the video. You can clearly differentiate me and the man in the video. Please observe minutely the belly, nose and walking style of the man in the video and compare those with me,” Jena told mediapersons here.
The matter took a political turn after president of Odisha Mahila Congress Sasmita Behera filed an FIR with Capital police demanding Jena’s arrest.
The Mayor also filed a counter FIR in Capital police station demanding arrest of Pradhan and owner of a web news portal for trying to malign his reputation and damage his political position. Jena came in a procession to the police station to file the FIR. The Mayor, accompanied by BJD MLA Priyadarshi Mishra and other supporters, sat on a dharna in front of the police station demanding the arrest of the two persons. The dharna was continuing till late into the night.