Bhubaneswar, Nov 6 (PTI) After scaling down their stir for two days due to Deepabali festival, the opposition BJP and Congress in Odisha on Saturday intensified the agitation by organising bandhs and staging dharnas demanding removal of minister D S Mishra for his alleged links with the prime accused in the kidnap and murder case of a woman teacher.

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Both the parties have also planned a series of protests during Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's proposed visit to Kalahandi district on Monday.

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While BJP state general secretary P Harichandan has announced “social boycott” of the chief minister's meeting at Dharmagarh, Congress leader Bhakta Charan Das appealed to people to observe a “janata curfew” during Patnaik's visit.

Addressing a press conference here, Harichandan said the saffron party has decided to burn effigies of the Minister of State for Home D S Mishra in all the 314 blocks of the state on Monday coinciding with the chief minister's meeting in Kalahandi.

The BJP has also threatened to gherao the police stations in all 30 districts.

Incidentally, the chief minister's programme is scheduled to be held in Kalahandi district exactly a month after the teacher's murder.

The educator, hailing from Bolangir district, was employed at a private school at Mahaling in Kalahandi district. Her body was exhumed from the playground of the institution on October 19.

The ruling BJD, however, accused the opposition of doing “petty politics over a sensitive matter like crime against women”.

“The opposition parties, particularly the BJP, have been misusing the issue for their narrow political gains and they do it before all major elections,” BJD spokesman and MP Sasmit Patra alleged.

Meanwhile, schools, colleges and markets remained shut and traffic movement was affected in both Gajapati and Jharsuguda districts in response to a bandh call given by the BJP demanding sacking of the minister and handing over the case to CBI.

While a bandh was observed in Gajapati district for 12 hours, Jharsuguda witnessed an eight-hour bandh.

The BJP has so far observed bandhs in Boudh, Balasore, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Subarnapur, Nuapada, Sambalpur, Balangir and Kalahandi districts last month, demanding the minister's ouster and a CBI probe into the case.

The Congress has also given a call for an Odisha bandh on November 12 if Mishra does not resign from his post.

Members of the Youth Congress during the day also launched their two-day dharna near Raj Bhawan in the state capital demanding Mishra's dismissal while Bhakta Charan Das held a rally in Bhawanipatna appealing to people to oppose Patnaik's visit to Kalahandi district and observe a two minutes silence as a mark of respect to the teacher at 11 am on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the minister faced a black flag demonstration in Kalahandi district when he was visiting Dharmagarh, the venue of the chief minister's scheduled meeting on Monday.

The police have picked up some protesters on the charge causing public disorder by staging agitation on thoroughfares.

“Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is sitting like blind king ‘Dhritarashtra'. Instead of taking action against the criminals, he is protecting them,” Harichadan alleged.

‘We will continue our protest till the minister is dismissed from his post and a CBI probe is ordered,” he said.

People should boycott all the programme of the chief minister due to the state government's "insensitive approach towards the heinous crime", Harichandan said.

The BJP has accused the minister of having close connection with the prime accused who has been arrested in connection with the teacher's murder.

Alleging that the BJP was politicising a criminal case, BJD spokesperson Patra cited two instances where the saffron party had "thrown all scruples to the wind" and sacrificed the dignity of the victims' families to take a political mileage.

Patra pointed out that the BJP had raised the issue of the death of a woman teacher in Rayagada in 2013 ahead of the 2014 elections and attempted to seek political mileage.

“People could understand BJP's evil designs and did not vote for the party candidates. Soon after, the party forgot all about the incident and returned to its cocoon,” Patra claimed.

Similarly in the alleged gang-rape and suicide case of a minor girl in Kunduli area of Koraput district, the BJP made it an issue in Bijepur by-election while police investigation was underway, he said.

But, when the government formed a commission and a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the incident, both parties did not turn up to file their complaints before the commission, Patra said

The Odisha Congress also hit out at the minister and blamed senior police officers, including the state DGP, accusing them of shielding the main accused.

“The police have been shielding the minister, who is accused of having close links with the prime accused in the teacher's murder case,” OPCC spokesperson Nishikant Mishra said in a press conference.

The Congress alleged that the police did not act promptly on the complaint by the teacher's family.

Both Nuagaon and Sindhekela police stations told the family that the case did not fall under their jurisdictions, Mishra claimed.

The FIR was lodged five days after the teacher went missing.

On the basis of FIR, the police detained the prime accused, who happens to be the president of the private school where the victim was working.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)