Senior Congress leaders engage in scuffle

BHUBANESWAR: The suspension of 12 party MLAs from the House spilled onto the streets on Tuesday evening when Congress leaders and activists reached the entrance of the State Assembly where they had a scuffle with the cops.

Senior Congress leaders including OPCC chief Bhakta Charan Das, former ministers Niranjan Patnaik, Narasingha Mishra, Jayadev Jena and Sarat Rout who wanted to meet the suspended legislators were later picked up by the police and removed from the restricted zone.

“The pity is that the five of us who wanted to meet our MLAs are all former ministers and entitled to enter the Assembly. But the manner in which the government used force against us is utterly pathetic,” Das said.