BHUBANESWAR: Even as the winter session proceedings were disrupted for the sixth consecutive day on Tuesday, high drama unfolded on the Assembly premises with Opposition members resorting to sloganeering and calling out Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for not attending the House and discussing the Mamita Meher murder case, respectively.
BJP went ahead to liken the Chief Minister to ‘Dhritarashtra’ who is protecting his two Cabinet ministers Dibya Shankar Mishra (who they called Duryodhan) and Pratap Jena (Dushashan). As soon as the House assembled for the day, BJP and Congress MLAs rushed to the well holding placards, beating gongs and sprinkling ‘Gangajal. Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro had to adjourn the House till 4 pm within two minutes as the Opposition members continued shouting slogans in the well.
The BJD countered the Opposition move by shouting slogans protesting the hike in the prices of petrol, diesel, LPG and other essential commodities. Women members of the ruling party also sprinkled ‘Gangajal’ in the House so that good sense prevails among the Opposition members.
Congress members did a ‘parikrama’ of the Assembly building to press for their demands. Party MLA Santosh Singh Saluja said the ‘parikrama’ was done to bring to the notice of the people, how the ruling BJD is stalling business in the House by not accepting the Opposition demands. Congress members had given an adjournment motion notice over the murder case on which Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha was expected to reply. However, the discussion could not be taken up due to the disruption.
Alleging that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is in deep slumber and not in a state to listen to anything, deputy leader of the BJP legislature party Bishnu Charan Sethi said party MLAs are beating gongs to wake him up. He criticised the Chief Minister for not attending the House although he was going to Kalinga stadium to attend hockey events.
Party chief whip Mohan Majhi said that the Chief Minister has become blind and likened him to Dhritarashtra who is protecting the two ministers Dibya Shankar Mishra who is Duryodhan and Pratap Jena who is Dushashan. Noisy scenes prevailed in the afternoon session. The House was adjourned till 10.30 am on Wednesday after it passed a resolution on Paika Bidroha amidst the din.