“Two female officers started pulling my hair and began beating me. When I pleaded with them to stop, they dragged me through the corridor of the police station," the victim recounted, detailing the inordinate police brutality.

Many Berhampur residents have been surprised at the action.

This is the first time in several years that the BJD has decided to oppose an important Bill tabled by the NDA government in the Parliament. In the past, the regional party, has been supporting the NDA government almost consistently.

The Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) has been renamed Gopabandhu Jana Arogya Yojana while another scheme called ‘Ama Odisha, Naveen Odisha’ is now rebranded as ‘Viksit Gaon, Viksit Odisha’.

The Supreme Court has sought a reply from the Odisha government on Dara’s plea within six months. Opposition leaders, however, smell a rat.

Police said 34 people have been detained in connection with the violence, which saw at least 20 injuries. Most political analysts feel that maintaining law and order will be a major challenge for the maiden BJP government in Odisha.

Ambitious and hard-working Majhi (52) is the first chief minister of the state hailing from northern Odisha which has generally lagged behind coastal and western parts of the state in terms of political clout.

Right now age is the only factor which seems to be against Patnaik who has not only accepted the verdict gracefully but also sought to keep the morale of his party workers and the newly elected MLAs high.

Former daily wage labourer Laxman Bag defeated five-time CM Naveen Patnaik from the Kantabanji Assembly constituency by a margin of over 16,000 votes.

Once believed to be invincible, five-time Odisha CM Patnaik seems to have been done in by his overconfidence and overdependence on bureaucrat-turned-politician VK Pandian.

Tarai, who was previously with the CPI and the Congress party, is pinning his hopes on the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi but the turncoat tag continues to haunt him.

Stakes are high for Bobby, the third most important man in BJD after chief minister Naveen Patnaik and his Man Friday V.K. Pandian, as candidates not only for the Jajpur Lok Sabha seat but also the seven assembly seats falling under it have been picked with his consent.    

He is being challenged by Congress veteran and former Union minister Srikant Jena and Biju Janata Dal’s Lekhashri Samantsinghar.

The BJP and the BJD are vying with each other to take credit for her election to the top office of the country.

Mahtab, who has been winning the seat on a BJD ticket since 1998, is facing his toughest battle ever against political novice Santrupta Mishra from the BJD.   

Sitting MP Aparajita Sarangi of the BJP, who is relying on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's charisma in reelection bid, set a record of sorts in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by trouncing BJD in a seat that Naveen Patnaik's party had held for over two decades.

Congress candidate Jay Narayan Patnaik is trying in vain to make the contest triangular. Already being dubbed an 'also-ran', he seems to be there just to mark his presence.

BJP national vice-president Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda is locked in a triangular contest with BJD candidate Anshuman Mohanty and Congress’s Siddharth Swarup Das.

At a rally, Modi asked Odisha people to ask Patnaik to 'spell out the names of districts and their capitals without the aid of a written paper.' While Modi's use of 'capitals' instead of 'headquarters' garnered laughs online, it is unlikely this ploy will play off.

The war of words between Narendra Modi and Naveen Patnaik this week has indicated that now it is a full-fledged war between BJP and BJD which were alliance partners in the state from 1998 to 2009 and ran a coalition government for two terms.