BHUBANESWAR: Bhubaneswar MP and BJP national spokesperson Aparajita Sarangi on Friday held Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik responsible for Thursday's attack against her and accused the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) of "adopting Trinamool Congress (TMC) like politics in the state".
Sarangi also sought police protection and stern action against the members of BJD who allegedly carried out the attack while she was attending a function involving senior citizens in the house of a widow in Acharya Vihar.
"Women in the state are not safe under the BJD regime. I, as a woman, also feel the same and hold Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, as the head of the government, responsible for this," she told media persons at her office at Palaspalli here.
Highlighting political violence in neighbouring West Bengal and rising number of such incidents in Odisha, Sarangi asked "if the ruling BJD is going the TMC way?"
The Bhubaneswar MP strongly criticised the BJD government for failing to provide safety and security to women in the state and said that she will take up the matter in the upcoming session of the Parliament.
Sarangi said Odisha, as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) record, is second in terms of crime against women. "The BJD leaders, however, want to make the Naveen Patnaik government and the state number one in it."
The BJP MP claimed that there was no sloganeering on LPG by agitators and that it was a protest organised to target her individually.
"The BJD must tell why it is targeting a woman MP who is working with the people for 15 to 16 hours a day for the development of her constituency. Why is the party feeling so insecure?" she asked.
The parliamentarian alleged that around 500 workers and supporters of BJD, including a few former corporators, gheraoed the house where she attended the programme as part of BJP's Jana Sampark Yatra.
"The agitators even pelted eggs and stones at the house to terrorise us. I along with my staff and some senior citizens remained confined in the house for nearly four hours during night and were later rescued after the Commissionerate Police intervened," she said.
Such attack against women could be a reflection of BJD's inflated ego after ruling the state for 22 years, she said and added that the incident has given her more courage and strength to start ward-level public meeting drive.