Bolangir: Two local leaders belonging to rival factions of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today indulged in a brawl during a rally of state unit president Manmohan Samal in Bolangir district. The leaders are Ananta Das and Gopalji Panigrahi. However, Samal denied saying that no such incident occurred.

The state unit chief along with Bolangir MP Sangeeta Singh Deo and senior BJP leader Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo was going in a rally from Bijakhaman locality to elsewhere in the district when the face-off erupted for reasons not known yet.

The BJP chief was in Bolangir to take part in ‘Mo Mati, Mo Desha’ programme of the party.

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“When the rally was passing through RTO Chhak, Ananta Das and his associate Balaram Singh Yadav attempted to welcome the party president by presenting a flower bouquet. However, this was opposed by Gopalji Panigrahi leading to a scuffle. Things took an ugly turn when the supporters of Panigrahi allegedly manhandled Das and tore his Kurta,” a BJP worker said on condition of anonymity.

On being contacted, state BJP president Manmohan Samal said mediapersons, “No such incident took place during the programme. There is no non-Odia leader in our party and in Bolangir district.”

Echoing a similar view, BJP's Bolangir district president Sibaji Mohanty said, “I was along with the party president for ‘Mo Mati, Mo Desha’ programme and no such incident caught our eyes.”