War over party ticket ; BJD MLA’s house ransacked

OST Bureau
Cuttack, Jan 18:

Infighting in the ruling Biju Janata Dal took an ugly turn on Friday when supporters of a party ticket aspirant ransacked Cuttack-Choudwar MLA Pravat Ranjan Biswal’s house at Mahanadi Vihar and beat up his brother, Arta Ranjan Biswal.

According to reports, a group of women had gone to the house of Biswal in the morning to inquire about the allocation of party ticket to a popular BJD worker of Ward-42 for the elections to the Cuttack Municipal Corporation(CMC) scheduled on February 6.

Since the MLA was not present at home, they demanded clarifications from his brother Arta Ranjan Biswal about why their leader would not be given the party ticket.

Biswal reportedly told them not to use vulgar language and also that he had no idea about party matters. An altercation followed between him and the mob which allegedly turned violent and ransacked his drawing room.

The MLA’s brother in his FIR has alleged that he was threatened with dire consequences by the unruly mob and that one of them even brandished a revolver.

However, countering the allegations, the opposite party, in a counter FIR, has alleged that the MLA’s brother misbehaved with the women and assaulted some men who were part of the group that had gone to the MLA’s residence.

The intra-party feud in the Cuttack city unit of BJD has reached fever pitch over ticket distribution and several party activists have filed their nominations as independent candidates after they were denied tickets by the party high command.