Peaceful Candlelight Protest Walk of District Biju Mahila Janata Dal 

Berhampur, 30/9 (Abhijit Kar): A peaceful candlelight protest march was held by district women’s BJD in Berhampur to protest against the disrespect of women speaker Pramila Mallik in the Odisha Assembly. A rally of upto hundreds of women under the leadership of Ganjam District Women’s President Sanghamitra Dalai started from Biju Patnaik Park on the local Corporation Road and a large group of upto hundreds of women protested by placing candles near the statue of Gandhi at Gandhi Park. In this context, Mrs. Dalei said, “While the central ruling BJP party has given protection to women, two MLAs of the state BJP, when the assembly session of the state is going on, how far is it justified to throw a pulse on the speaker’s head, if there was any protest, there was another way but to hit a woman speaker.” District Women’s BJD strongly protested. In addition, the district president expressed his opinion that he is demanding the expulsion of those two MLAs.

Similarly, other feminists also made various protests based on this incident. In the said program, the state Secretary M. Sujata Patra, Zone President Mamata Bisoy, District Secretary including City Women President Dr. Sonali Gantayat, Sanjukta Samal, Lakshmi Priya Padhi, Sandhya Rani Dalai, Madhusmita Majhi, Shanti Lata Sethi, Lakshmi Padhi and Berhampur MP Chandra Shekhar Sahu, MLA and District Planning Board Committee Chairman Bikram Kumar Panda, State Cashew Development Corporation Chairman Subas Chandra Maharana, City President Bijay Chandra Samal, Youth President Ajit Kumar Panda, Student President Shovan Nayak, Zone President Jyoti Ranjan Sahu, Suresh Tripathi, Kamal Patra, Netaji Patra, Sunya Chandra Das and All the workers of BJD including women corporators and women BJD workers were involved.