Suspended Congress MLAs 'evicted' from Odisha Assembly

Suspended Odisha Congress MLAs who were staging a sit-in the well of the House protesting action against them, were forcibly evicted from the assembly and dropped near Congress Bhawan, a party leader alleged on Wednesday.

The MLAs were "forcibly evicted" from the Assembly on Tuesday night and they had to spend the night on the street at Master Canteen, he said. "We were manhandled and forcibly evicted from the assembly at the dead of night. This is grossly illegal and undemocratic," said Taraprasad Bahinipati, one of the two Congress MLAs who was not suspended.

Odisha Congress president Bhakta Charan Das and AICC in-charge of Odisha, Ajay Kumar Lallu, will sit on dharna in the Master Canteen area on Wednesday protesting the suspension of 12 party MLAs.

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Rama Chandra Kadam alleged that the party MLAs during their stay in the assembly were denied food, water and even toilet facilities. Kadam was injured in the assembly on Tuesday night as a security personnel slammed a door on his hand and he sustained an injury to his finger.

The Congress MLAs were on Tuesday suspended from the House for seven days on charge of 'indiscipline' as they demanded the formation of a House committee to inquire into rising crimes against women across the state after the BJP came to power in June last year.

The suspension of the 12 Congress MLAs also triggered a face-off outside the assembly on Tuesday night, as police prevented the entry of senior Congress leaders to assembly premises. The police later took the leaders to a reserve ground and released them later.

Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena said the Congress leaders and activists were taken on preventive arrest and released at the reserve ground.

Taking to X, Ajay Kumar said: "The Congress party is fighting from the streets to the House for investigation of the exploitation and atrocities on women in Odisha. Our 12 MLAs were expelled from the House, and now when state president Bhakta Charan Das Ji and former state president Jaydev Jena Ji were going to meet the MLAs sitting on strike in the Assembly, the police forcibly arrested them. Why is the government afraid of a high-level investigation? What does it want to hide by not forming an investigation committee?"

Suspended Congress MLA Sofia Firdous on Wednesday said: "Let this be clear — suspension and intimidation cannot stop us. We will continue our fight, inside and outside the Assembly, until every woman in Odisha feels safe and justice is served."