BJP leader shot dead outside party office house near Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR: A local Bharatiya Janata Party leader was shot dead by two unidentified men on a scooter outside the party’s Khorda office, near Bhubaneswar on Sunday night mid--poll sparking protests by state BJP and a bandh call by them on Monday.

The killing of Manguli Jena, president of BJP’s Khordha mandal, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bhubaneswar has prompted outrage. The BJP called for a bandh in Khordha from 8am to 2pm on Monday

Union minister of petroleum and natural gas, Dharmendra Pradhan said, “We are shattered to hear about the murder of one of our party leaders in Khurda.”


In a series of tweets, the minister lashed out at the ruling Biju Janata Dal for violence and said the state would give it befitting reply through the ongoing simultaneous elections. Meanwhile Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, urged the Election Commission of India to take up the matter seriously, and order the police for a thorough and quick investigation, so that similar incidents don’t recur.

The police suspect Jena’s murder to be the result of him outbidding a fellow villager in the commercial lease of a village pond.