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Clashes during AICC team's visit faze Patnaik

Orissa Chief Minister J B Patnaik today described Tuesday's clash near the Congress Bhavan in Bhubaneswar during the visit of a four-member All India Congress Committee team as "most unfortunate", and asked the police to inquire into the incident.

Patnaik told newspersons at his official residence that discussions with the AICC team headed by senior Congress leader K Karunakaran passed off peacefully inside Congress Bhavan yesterday.

But some hooligans tried to create a scene outside the Bhavan, he said, adding that he has asked the police to find out how the whole thing happened. The chief minister said he was surprised as to how these hooligans managed to enter Congress Bhavan and create an ugly scene which, he felt, sent a wrong signal about the party's image.

Patnaik said the AICC team had come to study the reasons for the party's debacle in the general election, and also a possible revamp of the party in the state.

The chief minister said he had already made his stand clear, that he did not want to continue any more with the Pradesh Congress chief's post.

When newsmen pointed out that those who had created disturbances inside the Congress Bhavan were shouting slogan in favour of their respective leaders, Patnaik said there was nothing wrong in shouting slogans in favour of a leader but, shouting slogans against somebody was definitely not proper.

UNI

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