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HD Kumaraswamy in a soup for endorsing his son outside polling booth, EC seeks video footage

OpIndia Staff
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HD Kumaraswamy in a soup for endorsing his son outside polling booth, EC seeks video footage

The Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has landed himself in yet another controversy for allegedly endorsing his son outside a polling booth. Kumaraswamy held a press briefing outside a polling station Ramanagra where he attacked the central government and allusively endorsed his son Nikhil Gowda, who is contesting elections from Mandya constituency.

Considering the press briefing as a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, the Election Commission has taken the cognisance of the alleged violation and sought video footage of Kumaraswamy’s remarks.

While addressing the media, HD Kumaraswamy urged voters to come out in huge numbers to cast their votes. He also claimed that he is confident of JDS-Congress alliance in Karnataka winning 10-12 seats out of the total 14 Lok Sabha seats.

Defending Dynasty politics, HD Kumaraswamy asserted that it is because of dynasties that India has witnessed progress. HD Kumaraswamy, who’s son Nikhil Gowda is fighting the Lok Sabha elections this time further added that he is bothered about the criticism of dynasty politics from the BJP.


JDS president HD Deve Gowda in Hassan’s Paduvalahippe endorsed both his grandsons Nikhil Gowda and HD Revanna who are contesting elections from Mandya and Hassan respectively and declaimed that he fully expects that both of them will be victorious from their respective constituencies.

Election Commission does not allow campaigning for candidates inside a polling station and if anybody is found contravening these rules, appropriate action would be taken against them by the EC.

Congress dare not say a word on Sadhvi Pragya and here’s why

Ashish Shukla
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Congress dare not say a word on Sadhvi Pragya and here’s why

Beyond the cacophony on Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, readers must not overlook two important fallouts.

One, Congress, the peddler of “Saffron Terror” theory has completely zipped its mouth. There’s no reaction from Congress official handle, none from Rahul Gandhi, none from Kapil Sibal etc. Digvijay Singh, like a rat frozen in the glare of car headlights, has welcomed Sadhvi Pragya as an opponent from Bhopal constituency. Ghulam Nabi Azad has mumbled something to the effect that what else you could expect from BJP. There is a complete shutdown of Randeep Singh Surjewala, a motor-mouth. Priyanka Chaturvedi and Divya Spandana, who could out mouth “Basanti” of Sholay, are similarly silent.

Two, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) no longer is apologetic in being the voice of Hindus. It wants open debates so that the fake bogey of “saffron terror” peddled by Congress in its two terms (2004-2014) are kept in public consciousness. BJP has stood up for around a billion people. It’s a rallying call against the narrative which the Jihadi-Left-Liberal nexus injects in national and international veins. “We would be our own judge, not you” is the simple message.

It was between 2007-2010 when “saffron terror” became official propaganda in India. A host of tragic bomb blasts, Samjhauta Express Malegaon or Ajmer Sharif etc, were framed on the lines of “saffron terror.” RVS Mani, a former under-secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), openly named Digvijay Singh as one who laid the foundation of Hindu terror and spread it. More tellingly, “In the name of Hindu terror, he saved real terrorists using government resources. Ariq Qasmani, the accused in Samjhauta Express blast had escaped. In Mecca-Masjid blast case, Bilal escaped…but there’s no Hindu terror,” Mani said.

Much of it was done to frame Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a terror organization, a prelude to a possible ban on them. It would’ve been straight from the book of Mahatma Gandhi murder where Nathuram Godse was projected as a working RSS member (falsely), where Veer Savarkar was framed by some creative manipulation (falsely) before the third step of banning RSS was arrived at in 1948. Manohar Malgaonkar’s book The Men Who Killed Gandhi, is almost an eye-witness account as he interviewed and pieced together every single member involved in the Gandhi murder conspiracy. It’s a must read for all citizens of India as it recounts how the conspiracy broke Savarkar in spirit and health; how a very top Indian politician pulled strings to have him incriminated.

Sadhvi Pragya suffered unspeakable torture under police custody for eight years, to the extent that it left her paralysed. The Malegaon case slapped against her was so shallow, it should have been thrown out in half an hour. She had sold off the motorcycle–used in crime– much before the tragedy happened. The witnesses who were furnished against her retracted their statements. We have her video where she says she had no idea why police were indulging in such terrifying brutality against her. She was also made to hear pornographic audio in front of male jail inmates.

Yet none of our conscience-keepers said a word. None from Lutyens Media; none from Human Rights Commission, Amnesty, National Commission for Women, NGOs—none. None from Mayawati or Mamata who speak about “dignity of women” whenever a camera or mike is thrust in their faces.

Please don’t forget to read this piece of OpIndia which shows the extent to the hate which men and women from the Bollywood fraternity (Swara Bhaskar and Javed Akhtar) and Lutyens Media (Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose) pour on BJP’s choice for Bhopal constituency. Never ever would they discern a common thread running in the propagation of “saffron terror.” You could allude it to their bias or simple ignorance. In either case, it doesn’t help.

Today, Congress is silent because it knows it’s caught in their own noose. If they condemn Pragya Sadhvi, the Hindu vote conclusively would go to BJP and not just in Bhopal. If they praise the move, it would shut out their lifeline, the Muslim voters. That’s why they say that lies don’t take you far. Be it life or politics.

Congress Social Media head retweets meme mocking ‘BJP candidates’ who become victims of political violence

OpIndia Staff
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Congress Social Media head retweets meme mocking ‘BJP candidates’ who become victims of political violence

In recent times, political violence has become the norm in the country. And almost always, the victim appears to have saffron political inclinations. As West Bengal prepared for the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections. a BJP worker’s body was found hanging from a tree in Purulia district.

This was the third such incident in West Bengal’s Purulia district. Prior to this, two BJP workers, Trilochan Mahato and Dulal Kumar had also gone missing from the same Balrampur area last year during the Panchayat elections and were found murdered later. While Mahato’s body was hanging from a tree, that of Kumar was hanging from a high tension electric pole.

Similarly, in a single week, three people associated with the BJP were murdered in Odisha after the first phase of the Elections were completed. And such incidents have been happening for quite a while now.

Under such circumstances, when political violence is at an all-time high and BJP workers appear to be bearing the overwhelming brunt of it, Divya Spandana, social media head of the Congress party, retweeted a meme that appears to mock the victims of violence associated with the BJP.

The meme, which was originally shared by a Twitter user who tweets under the username @DaBlockheads, shows a man who is apparently wounded with blood strewn across his body. One of the people in the image asks his companion who the person is. The friend replies nonchalantly that the man was the BJP candidate.

That the meme, which was quite obviously in bad taste, was shared by a close aide of Rahul Gandhi reflects extremely poorly on the Congress party. However, it has increasingly become the norm. Rahul Gandhi, too, had decided on campaigning for a candidate from his party who threatened to chop Narendra Modi into piece merely days after professing his love for the Prime Minister.

Odisha: Maoists gun down polling party member, torch vehicles on the day before phase-2 of elections

OpIndia Staff
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Odisha: Maoists gun down polling party member, torch vehicles on the day before phase-2 of elections

As India moves into the second phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, incidents of violence are being reported from various states.

After incidents of political violence registered in states of West Bengal and Odisha, there have been reports that a group Maoists had struck on the eve of the second phase of elections in Odisha, gunning down a woman polling party staff and setting ablaze three poll vehicles on way to their booths on Wednesday, police said.

The incidents occurred in the Maoist affected Kandhamal district, where the Maoists have asked people to boycott the elections.

Sector Officer, Sanjukta Digal, 26, a gram rozgar sevak at Luisingi panchayat, was gunned down by Maoists when a polling vehicle was passing through a forest near Barahala booth.  A landmine planted by Maoists allegedly blasted in front of the polling vehicle. The driver immediately took a U-turn but the Maoists hiding in the forest then started firing at the vehicle. Sanjukta was grievously injured and was declared dead upon reaching the hospital.

Four other polling personnel in the vehicle were unhurt. The polling party was going to the Barahala booth under Gochhapada police limits.

In the other incident, the Maoists torched a vehicle carrying election officials to a polling booth in a village in remote Phiringia police station area.

Kandhamal district collector and returning officer, D Brunda said according to the initial report, armed Maoists in uniform asked the officials to get down from the vehicle before they set it ablaze.

Police confirmed that though all the officials are safe, it was not clear what happened to poll materials like the EVMs.

Police suspect that the KKBN (Kalahandi-Kandhamal- Boudh-Nayagarh) division of the CPI(Maoist) were involved in both the incidents.

Recently, Maoists, in their attempt to intimidate voters, had put up posters across Odisha, trying to dissuade them from voting in the 2019 Lok Sabha election which commenced on April 11.

Posters which read: “Lok Sabha aur Vidhan Sabha chunav ka bahiskar karo (boycott the Lok Sabha and assembly polls in Odisha),” attributed to the proscribed CPI (Maoist) had come up in as many as 100 spots, including in the district headquarters town of Nuapada, Odisha.

The Maoists had also tried to terrorise voters by planting live wires used in detonators. Some posters said that bombs have been planted. This was done to create fear in the minds of the general public.

Similar incidents were reported during the first phase of the assembly elections in 18 out of 90 assembly constituencies in Chhattisgarh last year. Maoists in Chattisgarh had threatened the local villagers of Dantewada, Bijapur, and Sukma to not only ‘boycott’ the elections but also to vacate the area.

The Maoist’s had also resorted to vandalism and blackening of the EC posters put up to encourage voting in Maoist affected areas.

Five Lok Sabha constituencies Aska, Kandhamal, Sundergarh, Bargarh, and Bolangir and 35 Assembly constituencies under them will go to elections in the second phase of 2019 polls on Thursday in Odisha.

The inherent fascism of ‘liberals’ – How a tweet by Pritish Nandy expose violent mindset of the lot

Editorial Desk
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The inherent fascism of ‘liberals’ – How a tweet by Pritish Nandy expose violent mindset of the lot

It no mystery that the self-proclaimed “liberals” are perhaps the most non-liberal bunch who bay for blood every time someone dares to disagree with their worldview. This perspective has been endorsed several times by how murders of BJP workers have either been celebrated, given a context to, or slid under the carpet like nothing ever happened. This notion was endorsed yet again when ‘journalist’ Pritish Nandy celebrated MNS goons thrashing citizens. He hailed Raj Thackeray for “giving it back to bhakts”.


Pritish Nandy quoted a video where MNS workers can be seen thrashing a Mumbai resident. The resident had criticised Raj Thackeray on Facebook after a rally by the MNS chief, and also had said that Raj Thackeray is anti-national. The person only made some comments on Facebook criticising a public leader and didn’t say anything that is against the law, like threating violence. But his comments against Raj Thackeray angered his supporters so much that they reached his home and started physically hurting him. It is seen that the person was offering his apology for his comments, but the mob was still attacking him.

Pritish Nandy quotes the video to praise Raj Thackeray by saying ‘Someone knows how to give it back to the bhakts. Don’t mess with leader Raj Thackeray”.

It is pertinent to note here that the person being thrashed had only opined on his personal Facebook page and had not threatened anyone with physical violence. Yet, “intellectuals” like Pritish Nandy thought that the written opinion of a citizen should be responded to with kicks and blows by political goons.

This deep malaise that has gripped the self-proclaimed ‘liberal’ is rather telling. They cry hoarse about human right violations when a journalist or anyone from their ecosystem is abused by some anonymous account on social media, whose identity cannot even be determined. They blame it on “Modi supporters” with no proof whatsoever and claim that in Modi’s India, freedom of speech is always under threat. But, the moment an apparent Modi supporter is thrashed black and blue for their opinion, they celebrate and hail the goon as a messiah. They say that physically beating a person up for the opinion is “teaching bhakts a lesson”.

This very incident of MNS goons threatening and beating a person up merely for his opinion on Facebook was also downplayed by NDTV journalist Sreenivasan Jain. Pretending to condemn this violence by MNS workers, Jain remarked, “Thuggery cannot be the answer to thuggery”. Considering that the Modi supporter only expressed his opinion on Facebook, equating physical violence to sharing an opinion and calling the latter as thuggery too is a classic case of downplaying violence and dehumanising the victim of violence simply because his political views are not agreeable to him.

It was once said that an editor had celebrated the death of RSS chief with a ‘daaru party’. For long it has been rumoured that the so-called liberals regular indulged in celebrations when Hindu activists were killed, such open endorsement to violence gives credence to such rumour.

Rajdeep Sardesai had brazenly given a ‘political context’ to the brutal murder of Prashant Poojari by communists. The Bajrang Dal activist was hacked mercilessly with his only crime being his political ideology. Rajdeep Sardesai shamelessly wrote an article headlined, “Political context to Prashant Poojari’s murder, cannot compare with Dadri beef lynching” thereby dehumanising Prashant Poojari and almost giving intellectual cover to the murderers of the Hindu activist. The malaise runs so deep that Rajdeep Sardesai even gave a context to Dawood Ibrahim’s terrorism.

Barkha Dutt, on the other hand, mirrored the Nazis when she contextualised the Kashmiri Pandit genocide and exodus when she asserted that there was anger among the Muslim population because the Hindus were wealthier and had access to better economic opportunities.

Perhaps the most despicable example of the wine-sipping elite revelling in the torture heaped upon Hindus is what happened to Sadhvi Pragya, the torture she underwent and the “liberal” silence about her plight. Recently, when Sadhvi Pragya joined BJP and was given a ticket to contest from Bhopal, the very “liberals” who had stayed silent throughout her false imprisonment and Congress’ attempts to further the “Hindu terror” bogey, heaped insults on the Sadhvi simply because the colour of her attire was saffron.

The hatred for Hindus and anyone who disagrees with the “liberal” worldview deserves to be insulted, thrashed and dehumanised. That is the message that “liberals” like Pritish Nandy and Sreenivasan Jain aim to give and do so rather successfully.

Karnataka: CM Kumaraswamy bats for dynasty politics, says India developed only because of it

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka: CM Kumaraswamy bats for dynasty politics, says India developed only because of it

After whining about PM Modi’s complexion and skin tone recently and openly weeping in public yesterday, Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy has hailed dynasty and regional politics after casting his vote.

Speaking to the media after casting his vote in Karnataka’s Ramnagara, the son of JDS patriarch HD Devegowda and present Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy stated that dynasty politics is not an important issue right now and there are other issues to be discussed. He added that India has developed only because of dynasty politics and regional politics.


Kumaraswamy added that he is not bothered about the BJP’s criticism.

It is interesting to note that after weeks of tussles over Lok Sabha seat sharing with Congress, JDS had agreed on 8 seats. Out of the 8 seats, the party is fielding dynasts from 3. While party patriarch HD Devegowda is contesting from Tumkur,    his elder son Revanna’s son Prajwal Revanna is contesting from Hassan and Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil is contesting from Mandya Lok Sabha seat.

West Bengal: BJP worker murdered, body found hanging from a tree in Bengal’s Purulia

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: BJP worker murdered, body found hanging from a tree in Bengal’s Purulia

In a shocking incident, a BJP worker was killed and his body was found hanging on a tree in West Bengal’s Purulia.


The 22-year-old, Sishu Pal Shahish was the son of a BJP member of the local gram panchayat and was associated with BJP Youth Wing. This is the third such incident in West Bengal’s Purulia district. Prior to this, two BJP workers, Trilochan Mahto and Dulal Kumar had also gone missing from the same Balrampur area last year and were found murdered later. While Mahato’s body was hanging from a tree, that of Kumar was hanging from a high tension electric pole.

Meanwhile, reports have emerged that a reporter and photographer of a vernacular channel have also been beaten up at Goalpokhar in Raiganj PC. They were left bleeding till colleagues rescued them and took them to hospital. They went to a booth following allegations of voter intimidation.

Acts of savageness due to extreme animosity have become common in West Bengal under the TMC supremacy. BJP workers have in the past few months, succumbed to a string of brutal political murders and political rapes. Several incidents of violence were also reported in West Bengal during the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections which concluded on April 11.

Violence had been reported in the two constituencies, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar, that had gone to polls in the first phase of the elections.

Allegations had been flying and TMC and BJP had both accused each other of attacking workers of the opposite faction and preventing voters from registering their votes.

In certain booths, only TMC agents were present in clear violation of rules and regulations. The BJP had alleged that their agents were threatened the previous night and their homes were attacked. A BJP camp office had also been attacked.

West Bengal has a history of political violence prior to every such election. The Panchayat elections which concluded last year was also marred by widespread reports of violence, murder and even capturing of ballot boxes. Twenty people were injured in a low-intensity blast at a polling station in Cooch Behar district and several incidents of pre-poll violence were also reported. The run-up to the Panchayat polls had been a bloody one as well.

The General elections in West Bengal will be held in all the seven phases starting April 11, 2019. Results will be declared on May 23.

As Rahul Gandhi attacks Modi for ‘working for industrialists’, Congress candidate uses endorsement by Ambani and others to seek votes

OpIndia Staff
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As Rahul Gandhi attacks Modi for ‘working for industrialists’, Congress candidate uses endorsement by Ambani and others to seek votes

Senior Congress leader Milind Deora and the Congress candidate from South Mumbai constituency has released an ad campaign appealing for votes. In the video, one can see several industrialists and small business owners endorse Deora’s candidature. Among the industrialists endorsing Deora, is Mukesh Ambani. Interestingly, Rahul Gandhi has been basing his entire campaign on attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “working for industrialists” like the Ambanis.


While Milind Deora, senior Congress leader is using the endorsement of industrialists to appeal for votes, Rahul Gandhi has been going hammer and tongs against the Prime Minister, asserting that PM Modi is not concerned about the poor, but only the industrialists.

Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly asserted that Prime Minister Modi has waived off loans of several industrialists but won’t do the same for farmers. He has constantly muddied the water by lying about the difference between ‘write off’ and ‘loan waiver’ in order to mislead people into believing that the Modi government has forgone all debts by industrialists.

In November 2018, Rahul Gandhi had said, “Modiji gave Rs 3.5 lakh crore to the 15 richest people of the country in the last 4-5 years. For running MGNREGA scheme in the country, an amount of Rs 35,000 crore is needed yearly but he waived loans worth 10 times that amount of 15 select industrialists”.

While the amounts and the number of industrialists mentioned by Rahul Gandhi keeps changing with every speech, he has maintained his erroneous attack against the Prime Minister. His attempt has been, perhaps, to try and create an image of himself that sits well with the poor population of India while chiding and deriding industrialists constantly.

While on the one hand, Rahul Gandhi has mounted an overall attack against industrialists, he has also gone after the Anil Ambani personally several times in connection with the Rafale case. The Rafale deal has been given a clean chit by the Supreme Court, and yet, Rahul Gandhi has insinuated wrong-doing on the part of the Prime Minister and insinuated repeatedly that Anil Ambani benefitted wrongly in the Rafale deal.

It is thus intriguing that while Congress president Rahul Gandhi has derided industrialists and the symbiotic relationship that any government would aim to share with the business class, Milind Deora, a senior Congress leader and a close aide of Rahul Gandhi has turned to these very industrialists for an endorsement and used their word to appeal for votes.

The hypocrisy displayed by the Congress party doesn’t end with Milind Deora’s vote appeal. Rahul Gandhi’s industrialist jibe has often boomeranged against him. In 2010 when the Congress government was in power, Mukesh Ambani had reportedly said that “Congress to ab apni dukaan hai”. BJP had used this to attack Congress and Rahul Gandhi and also revealed that it was in the Congress tenure, that several industrialists got loans ‘waived’ and exorbitant loans were also granted.

Congress’ hypocrisy is furthered by the fact that while Rahul Gandhi attacks industrialists on the whole and Anil Ambani in particularly, in the Reliance Telecom – Erriccson case, it was senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal who was representing Ambani. In fact, Rahul Gandhi had used the very case where Ambani was represented by Kapil Sibal to further lies about the Modi government and the Armed Forces.

Milind Deora’s vote appeal that uses industrialists’ endorsement is just another feather in the hypocritical Congress cap with the pack led by none other than Congress President Rahul Gandhi himself.

Even if our potatoes get dumped or we die of hunger, we will vote for Modi ji: Potato farmers in Hathras

OpIndia Staff
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Even if our potatoes get dumped or we die of hunger, we will vote for Modi ji: Potato farmers in Hathras

Potato farmers of Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh appear to have made up their minds about voting for Prime Minister Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. This what a BBC reporter found out while talking to farmers in Hathras.

The BBC reporter asked the potato farmers in the district which goes to poll on April 18 as to what did they think about who would win. To this, the farmers replied in unison that they would vote for Modi. “We have no complaints about Modiji,” they said in one voice. Rejecting the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in the State, the farmers termed all the three parties in the gathbandhan as thieves. ‘Sab log chor chor mausere bhai hai rahe hain (they are all thieves)”, replied one of them.

However people appeared disappointed with the local BJP MLAs or the MPs. “Lekin ye jo sir machinery hai na Modiji ki, jo Saansad hain Vidhayak hain, vo dekh bhi nhi rahe hain ki yahan kya ho rha h, aate bhi nahi yahan kabhi (The local MLAs and the MPs do not even come to see what is happening here)”, came a voice.

Despite their dissatisfaction with the local BJP leaders, the farmers hinged their hopes on PM Modi. “Chahe hamare aloo fik jaye, chahe hum bhukhe marein par vote Modi ji ko hi denge (Even if our potatoes get dumped or we die of hunger but we will vote for Modi ji)”, asserted a farmer. “Hume Modi hi Pradhan Mantri chahiye(We want only Modi as our Prime Minister)” said Puran Singh, a potato farmer.

Criticising the Congress Party the farmers said that the Congress did nothing for 50 years and that five years are not enough to change the country.

Political violence continues in Odisha: Mutilated body of BJP worker found on the eve of phase-2 polls

OpIndia Staff
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Political violence continues in Odisha: Mutilated body of BJP worker found on the eve of phase-2 polls

On the eve of the second phase of Lok Sabha and assembly polls, the mutilated body of a BJP worker was found in the Agajhola village in Bhanjanagar, Ganjam. The BJP worker, a 26-year-old man named Santosh Pati was allegedly found dead in a pool of blood, according to local reports.

As per reports, locals in the village discovered Santosh’s body and alerted the police. The police have since then sent the body for post-mortem at the Bhanjanagar hospital.

BJP leader Baijayant Panda has tweeted to request the ECI to take cognisance of the situation in Odisha and arrange for extra forces.


Tension prevailed in the locality and police forces have been reportedly deployed to handle any untoward situation as many areas of the state go to polls today.

The deceased person, Santhosh Kumar Pati reportedly hailed from the Lathipada panchayat. A scuffle had broken out among workers of two parties last night over tearing posters of their respective parties. News reports state that Pati was allegedly attacked with iron rods and left to die.

Prabhat Kumar Sahu, IIC of Saroda police station has stated that investigations are underway and police teams have been deployed to ensure smooth polling process in the area.

Incidents of political violence have been reported in Odisha in the past week. Earlier this week, a BJP Mandal president in Khurda town was shot dead by unknown assailants near the party office while the MLA candidate had a narrow escape.

It is notable here that a week ago, the nephew of the BJP MLA candidate in the same Bhanjanagar area was attacked by violent miscreants and had sustained critical injuries. Ajit Pradhan, the nephew of BJP MLA candidate Pradyumna Nayak was violently attacked after a public meeting of union minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Nayak had alleged that a local sarpanch named Tutu Pradhan had orchestrated the attack.

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