BJP demands expulsion of suspended BJD MLA whose car ran over crowd injuring 23

At least 23 people, including seven policemen, were injured after Chilika MLA Prashant Jagdev's vehicle allegedly ran over them outside BDO Banpur's office in Odisha on Saturday.

A day after Odisha MLA Prasant Jagdev's car ploughed through a crowd leaving 23 people injured, the opposition BJP on Sunday demanded his expulsion from the ruling BJD claiming that the suspension of the lawmaker from the regional party is an “eyewash”.

The demand was made by senior BJP leader and the party's national spokesperson Sambit Patra who met the injured people at a hospital after reaching here from New Delhi.

The BJD claimed that the BJP wants to politicise the "barbaric incident" as the ruling party has already sought the strictest action against the suspended MLA.

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As many as 23 people including 10 police personnel and two journalists were injured on Saturday when the suspended BJD MLA's vehicle allegedly ploughed through a crowd outside the Banapur BDO's office in Khurda district where the election for the block chairperson was underway.

Jagdev, the MLA from Chilika, was also critically injured as he was roughed up by a mob after the incident. An attempt to murder case was registered against him and he will be arrested after his discharge from the hospital, police said.

Patra said, “Jagdev was a habitual offender and his suspension from the ruling party was just an eyewash to mislead people. Why has the BJD not expelled its Bahubali (muscleman) MLA despite his involvement in a series of violence?”