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‘Jail Bharo’ by Congress workers

Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Congress activists being prevented by the police from entering office of the Revenue Divisional Commissioner in Berhampur on Friday. —

BERHAMPUR: Hundreds of Congress supporters from different parts of south Orissa courted arrest in front of the office of the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) in the city on Friday protesting against alleged failure of Naveen Patnaik government.

It was a show of strength of the party with an eye on the coming elections. The party has already held similar ‘Jail Bharo’ protest rally in Cuttack on June 20 and they have planned another one in Sambalpur on a later date.

Union Minister of State Chandrasekhar Sahu, who played a major role in the organisation of Berhampur rally, said the success of these rallies proves the diminishing popularity of the BJD-BJP government in the State. Party workers from different areas started reaching the city by buses, minibuses and jeeps since morning. A public meeting at Khallikote Autonomous College Stadium preceded the rally.

This public meeting was attended by several state level leaders of the Congress including Mr Sahu, PCC president Jayadev Jena, leader of the Opposition in State Assembly and former Chief Minister J.B. Patnaik, some former state Ministers as well as sitting Congress MLAs of south Orissa.

Party’s State in-charge Ajay Maken, AICC coordinator Pawan Singh Atwal and AICC secretary K. Suresh Kumar were also present. They spoke on the deteriorating law and order situation in the state and all round failure of the state government.

After the meeting the Congress activists went to the RDC office in a rally. And it was total chaos on the city roads as the agitators did not come out of the stadium through a single route. Most of the leaders boarded the decorated trucks and it was left for the common supporters to take the route they wished. It affected the city traffic for an hour on the NH 217 and some other roads parallel to it during afternoon.

Near the RDC office the Congress leaders led by Mr Jena courted arrest while trying to break the barricade. Police also had to chase the mob with lathis for a few minutes.

According to Berhampur city Congress president Sanjit Panigrahy, some miscreants in the mob started pelting stones. It hit photo journalists and policemen. Mr Panigrahy and some others had to protect party Central leaders like Mr Atwal and Mr Suresh Kumar as well as former state minister Bhupinder Singh from the stones and wrath of policemen.

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