Odisha police 'detain' panchayat samiti members at hotel ahead of block president election

A total of 12 Panchayat Samiti PS members of Odishas Ganjam district were allegedly detained at a hotel and their mobile phones taken away by the police hours before the election to Chhatrapur block chairpersons post, in order to stop them from voting on Saturday.The detention of the PS members, suspected to be the result of infighting in the ruling BJD, came to the fore after a video of them seeking help from people while standing on a balcony of the hotel on Saturday morning went viral.

A total of 12 Panchayat Samiti (PS) members of Odisha's Ganjam district were allegedly detained at a hotel and their mobile phones taken away by the police hours before the election to Chhatrapur block chairperson's post, in order to stop them from voting on Saturday.

The ''detention'' of the PS members, suspected to be the result of infighting in the ruling BJD, came to the fore after a video of them seeking help from people while standing on a balcony of the hotel on Saturday morning went viral. There are 18 PS members at Chhatrapur and 12 of them were allegedly locked up at the hotel in Barakul near Chilika lake. Though candidates of the Panchayat Samiti election were not allotted party symbols, these 12 were known to be BJD leaders.

The police, however, denied the charge and asserted that the move was made keeping in view the security of the peoples’ representatives who later voted in the election.

''We were taking rest at the hotel when the police seized our mobile phones and locked us up at around midnight last night,'' Sonali Senapati, one of the 12 ''detained'' PS members, was heard saying in the video.

The viral video, made and uploaded on social media by one of them who had more than one mobile phone, showed the PS members standing on a balcony of the hotel and urging people to be rescued. They alleged that the police were trying to stop them from casting their votes.

Senapati said, ''Police personnel were deployed at various exit points of the hotel. They are not allowing us to go outside.'' Soon after news channels started showing the video, the police made arrangements for their travel to Chhatrapur to vote.

They reached there at around 1 pm and cast their votes.

Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Chhatrapur, Goutam Kisan said, “The police have not detained anyone. We had received information that the panchayat samiti members might be threatened and stopped from casting their votes. As a precautionary measure, we provided them protection at the hotel.'' BJD sources said that in the three-tier panchayat elections held in February, the ruling party bagged 15 of the total 18 Panchayat Samiti Member seats in Chhatrapur, while Left parties won the three other.

Of the 15, six were supporters of the local BJD MLA Subash Chandra Behera while nine were not. These nine PS members got the support of the three Left leaders and formed a group of 12, and thus would have been able to elect the block president of their choice, the sources said.

This group of 12 people were ''detained'' at the hotel.

Despite several attempts, Behera could not be contacted for comments.

After votes were counted, Kiran Kumari Das, one of the 12 members opposed to Chhatrapur MLA was, was declared elected to the block chairperson's post.

Earlier, the Chhatrapur block chairperson election was postponed. It was initially slated for March 12, but ahead of that date, it was stated that six PS members had been infected with Covid-19 and they were shifted to some unknown place by the local administration while the new date for the polling was fixed at April 2.