Odisha Assembly adjourned till 3 pm after demonstration by BJP

The Odisha Assembly Tuesday witnessed a noisy scene as BJP legislators demonstrated in the Well of the House and accused the Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra of having a secret pact with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Unable to run the House, Speaker P K Amat adjourned the proceedings, thrice, till 3 pm.

The issue was raised by the BJP lawmakers as soon as the House assembled for the Question Hour.

They rushed to Well of the House and raised slogans against both the chief minister and the opposition leader.

Even an all party meeting convened by the Speaker to resolve the matter failed to yield any result.

The members of the BJP led by Rabi Naik claimed that Odisha's interest has been compromised due to the nexus between the leader of opposition and the chief minister.

"This is something like 'Chor Machae Shor' (thief raising a hue and cry). All of us know that the BJD and the BJP are brothers. They are two sides of the same coin. The Congress has all along opposed the BJD government in the Assembly and outside," the Leader of Opposition and Congress MLA, Narasingha Mishra, said outside the House.

BJP legislature party leader KV Singhdeo alleged that the Congress members deliberately create a ruckus whenever the BJP wants to raise a pertinent issue in the House.

"Yesterday, we had decided to raise the issue relating to the felling of trees for a beer-bottling plant in Dhenkanal district. But the BJD members, in order to divert the attention of the House, had come up with a letter related to the slashing of the post-matric scholarship fund for the Scheduled Caste students by the Centre. To stall the House proceedings, the Congress members also rushed to the Well of the House, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House till 3 pm," Singhdeo said.

"There are several instances in the past which justifies a secret alliance between the Congress and the BJD," Singhdeo said.

BJP member Pradip Purohit said former Leader of the Opposition of Congress, Bhupinder Singh, who had criticised the BJD on a number of occasions in the Assembly, later joined the BJD and became a Rajya Sabha MP.

"The present Leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra is also following the footsteps of his predecessor. The former Koraput Congress MLA Krushna Chandra Sagaria had told the media about the close affinity of the opposition leader with Naveen," Purohit said.

Coming down heavily on the BJP, BJD leader Sanjay Dasburma said the saffron party had no moral right to make any statement on issues relating to the interest of the state.

Their attitude is a threat to democracy, he said.

BJD spokesman and MLA Pushpendra Singhdeo said the BJD had been maintaining equi-distance from both the Congress and the BJP.