Our consistent charge that the BJD and BJP are together was established in full public glare today charged the Congress while drawing the marriage analogy to note how protesting BJP mlas were received and treated as ‘baratis’ with the blowing of conch, applying tilak etc at the CM’s residence.

Just like the baratis, the BJP members reached the gates of the CM’s residence where the BJD welcomed them with tilak. In marriage functions, the bride’s father comes out of the house to receive the bridegroom, remarked veteran Congress leader Narasingha Mishra while referring to how the CM Naveen Patnaik walked out to the road to invite and escort the BJP members to his residence.

The only thing missing, perhaps, was the band and music that accompanies the barat. It was perhaps due to COVID restrictions, he remarked. The BJD MLA’s were however escorting the BJP MLA’s, he added.

The Congress has repeatedly stated that the two parties are engaged in a mock fight. They work in tandem and support each other in every step in parliament, one gifts a Rajya Sabha seat to the other and does not utter a word against the three contentious farm laws, he added.

The list of the glaring instances of bonhomie is long. Today people of Odisha have seen this cosy relationship being played out live on television , he added.

Firebrand Congress mla Taraprasad Bahinipati said the BJP and BJD are both anti-farmer. The central government’s farm laws have led to widespread protests by farmers over several months, 200 farmers have died and the BJD remained mum lending silent support to the BJP led government at the centre.

When several other states passed laws to protect the farmers against the anti-farmer laws of the centre, the BJD in Odisha did not, instead it moved supportive ordinances, charged Bahinipati.

The two parties do not want paddy of farmers to be procured, he alleged.

What happened to the BJP’s demand that the CM should come to the all party meeting and give a firm commitment of procurement of paddy, he quizzed while chiding that the BJP members went to the residence of the CM, had fruit juice and came out smiling giving up the cause of farmers.

The Congress mla’s however registered their protests by briefly squatting beneath the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the Assembly premises demanding procurement of paddy stock from farmers.