Bhubaneswar, May 26: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday expressed anguish over the much-discussed HIndol incident in which a BJD leader forced a woman to cast her vote for the BJD and, on refusal, beat her yesterday.

The incident occurred at Rasol in the Hindol Assembly constituency.

Pradhan hoped the DG of Police would take action against the concerned BJD leader soon.

Uploading a video of the woman giving a reaction to the incident on 'X', the Union Minister said women had been subjected to exploitation during the 25 years of rule of the Naveen Patnaik government.

"Under Naveen Babu's rule, women's safety, honor, and dignity have always been neglected. The unfortunate incident at Rasol in Hindol constituency is vivid proof of that. Voting is everyone's right. But it is an old habit of BJD leaders to force people to vote for their party leaders and resort to violence if protested, which is very unfortunate. Such indifference towards the dignity of women and taking away democratic rights by force is an example of the failure of 25 years of the remote-controlled government," Pradhan remarked.

Pradhan remarked that a close aide of Naveen Patnaik has kept him in custody and made him hopeless. He (the close aide) is now hatching a conspiracy to pledge democracy.

"Violence has no place in democracy. The people of Odisha will never tolerate such neglect, hooliganism and rude behavior towards women. The people of Odisha will soon give a befitting reply to Naveen Babu and Biju Janata Dal for mocking Odia Asmita," contended Pradhan.

He hoped that the DG of Police would investigate the Rasol incident and arrest the BJD goons soon.

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