BHUBANESWAR: Senior Congress leader Suresh Kumar Routray on Tuesday made a U-turn on the issue of engagement of bouncers in the party headquarters during a high-level meeting on January 18 by blaming the rival parties BJD and BJP even as former MP Pradip Majhi maintained that an inquiry should be conducted, if the incident is true.
"None from our party had brought the bouncers to Congress Bhavan. Opposition had sent the bouncers to tarnish our image. It’s a ploy of the rival parties to tarnish the image of Congress. Nobody from the party brought those bouncers to the Congress Bhavan. We don’t have dearth of workers in our party. We can gather a crowd of over 5,000 supporters with just a wave of hand. So the story of bouncers is false," Routray told mediapersons here.
The former minister, however, maintained that the Congress Bhavan is a sacred institution. “I condemn whoever had sent those bouncers to taint our image,” he said.
However, bouncers were seen at the Congress Bhavan during the meeting attended among others by president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik and Odisha in-charge Digvijay Singh.
Sources said the bouncers were engaged to prevent entry of suspended Chhatra Congress leader Itish Pradhan along with his supporters. Routray along with several senior leaders had condemned the incident. However, his sudden volte face has surprised many.
However, Majhi disagreed with Routray and said engagement of bouncers has sent a wrong message to the people. Stating that a probe should be ordered to find out why bouncers were engaged, the former working president of the party said he will take up the issue with the OPCC president.
Meanwhile, a high-level meeting presided by the OPCC president was held at the Congress Bhavan on Tuesday to finalise the party’s future course of action.
The party decided to support the rally to be organised by "Ame Bharat Basi" (We the Indians) at the Lower PMG square here against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) on January 30. Patnaik has requested party leaders and workers to attend the rally in large number.