Bhubaneswar, Mar 26 (UNI) The suspended Congress legislators from the Odisha Assembly, after being evicted by Assembly security last night, staged a protest demonstration on the road near Congress Bhawan against their suspension from midnight of Tuesday.
The suspended legislators, along with other party workers, slept on the street throughout the night in protest, alleging that they were assaulted by the security staff.
They claimed that the Assembly security personnel forcibly removed them from the well of the House, where they were staging a dharna to protest their suspension.
Congress President Bhakta Charan Das and Odisha Congress in-charge Ajay Kumar Lallu, along with other leaders, joined the protest, accusing the state government of throttling democracy and suppressing the voice of the Opposition for raising concerns over the rising crimes against women in the state during the last nine months of BJP rule.
They asserted that the party would not remain a silent spectator to the "dictatorship" of the BJP government and vowed to take to the streets to fight against it.
The Odisha Congress has called for a "Gherao" of the Odisha Assembly on March 27, stating that women are no longer safe in the state and that the BJP government has miserably failed to control the increasing crimes against women.
Odisha Assembly Speaker Surama Padhy suspended 12 out of the 14 Congress MLAs from the House for seven working days after government chief whip Saroj Kumar Pradhan moved a motion on Tuesday condemning the unruly behavior of Congress MLAs inside the well, which had disrupted important legislative proceedings for the past several days.
However, the suspended MLAs refused to leave the well of the House, stating that they would spend the night there and continue their protest until the government conceded their demand for a House committee to investigate rising atrocities against women in the state.
A high-voltage drama unfolded at the Assembly gate last night when several Congress leaders and workers attempted to enter the Assembly to protest the suspension of their party MLAs.
Congress President Bhakta Charan Das and former ministers Niranjan Pattnaik, Jayadev Jena, Narshingha Mishra, and Sharat Rout also tried to enter the Assembly but were stopped by the police, leading to a scuffle between Congress workers and security forces.
The police later detained Congress leaders and several workers for violating Section 163 of the BNS, which had been promulgated in and around the State Assembly.
Meanwhile ,all the 12 suspended Congress MLAs and two others MLAs Tara Prasad Bahinipati and Ramesh Jena ,holding placards and beating cymbals,went in a procession from the Congress Bhawan to proceed to the state Assembly along with their party leaders and supporters.
They had a scuffle with the police while trying to break the police cordon and barricade near the Assembly in their bid to enter into the Assembly.
UNI DP KK