BJP Spokesperson Anil Biswal issued a press statement on Thursday declaring the bandh (strike) called by the Congress and Left parties a “complete failure,” stating that the people of Odisha have entirely rejected it.
According to Biswal, normal life across the state remained unaffected, proving that the public did not support the issues for which the opposition took to the streets.
Biswal strongly condemned the alleged violent behavior of the opposition workers. He claimed that frustrated by the lack of public support, workers from the Congress and Left parties resorted to hooliganism, creating an atmosphere of terror among the common people.
“Videos circulating in the media clearly show Congress workers obstructing and misbehaving with patients heading to hospitals and parents dropping their children off at school. Even pregnant women were not spared from the anarchic behavior of the uncultured leaders and workers of the Congress and the INDI alliance,” Biswal alleged, adding that the peace-loving people of Odisha will give a fitting reply to these actions.
Questioning the opposition’s campaign of “Saving the Constitution,” Biswal asked which article of the Constitution permits such violent conduct. He cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Communist Party of India vs. Bharat Kumar case, which explicitly states that no political party can enforce a bandh through coercion. He accused the opposition of directly violating the apex court’s directives, noting that the recorded videos of their hooliganism will remain permanent evidence of their violent conduct.
Furthermore, Biswal took a sharp dig at the electoral performance of the opposition parties. Mocking the Left parties, which he noted secure only a 0.14% vote share in Odisha, and the Congress, which has seen a continuous decline in its vote percentage since the 1995 elections, he dismissed their recent allegations of electoral malpractice.
“Those who are raising slogans of ‘vote theft’ to justify their electoral losses must realize that the public simply no longer votes for thieves,” Biswal remarked.
