The Opposition on Monday demanded the resignation of the deputy chief minister and law minister over the Puri stampede that claimed the lives of three devotees near the Shree Gundicha Temple early on Sunday morning.

While the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) called for the resignation of the deputy chief minister and law minister, the Congress went a step further, demanding that chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi, deputy chief minister Pravati Parida and law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan step down, taking moral responsibility for the tragedy.

The Opposition also rejected the ₹25 lakh ex gratia for the families of the deceased, stating that the compensation should be doubled. Congress further demanded a judicial probe into the incident by a sitting district sessions judge.

Addressing a press conference at the party office, a BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said: “The state government had constituted a ministerial committee headed by deputy chief minister Pravati Parida for the smooth conduct of the Rath Yatra. When the stampede occurred, where were they? Why was not a single member of the ministerial committee present to supervise the arrangements? The law minister had earlier made tall claims about the government’s preparedness for the Yatra. If he had any conscience left, he should resign.”

Mohanty added: “Deputy chief minister Pravati Parida, being a woman, should be able to empathise with the grief and pain of the devotees. She should step down immediately. Where was the chief advisor to the chief minister, Prakash Mishra, the former director-general of police (DGP)? Being a former police officer, he should have been there and supervised the situation.”

Highlighting the alleged mismanagement, Mohanty said: “As per protocol, at least 22 platoons of police force should have been deployed at the time. But there was only a lean deployment. The government has installed hundreds of AI-based cameras connected to the police control room. But we suspect that both the cameras and the control room were not functioning properly.”

Stating that the transfer of the Puri collector and SP, along with the suspension of two police officials, was insufficient, he added: “The guilty should be punished.”

At a press conference at the AICC headquarters in Delhi, Congress’s lone MP from Odisha, Saptagiri Ulaka, said: “We hold the trio responsible for the deaths of the devotees. The Rath Yatra was turned into a political event.”

Senior Congress leaders Ulaka and Arabinda Das accused the BJP government of converting a sacred religious occasion into a VIP spectacle, which they said led to the stampede. The party demanded a “full disclosure of the number of deaths so that families can identify their loved ones and perform their last rites with dignity.”

“The BJP government turned Odisha’s holiest festival into a private event for billionaires, cronies, and camera crews, at the cost of ordinary devotees,” they alleged, accusing the BJP of defiling the sacred Yatra by “prioritising Adani over Mahaprabhu Jagannath.”

The Congress leaders said the BJP government in Odisha had made history by reducing the sacred Rath Yatra of Mahaprabhu Jagannath into a stage-managed political ‘tamasha’ that ended in a stampede, sorrow, and disgrace. “This is not mismanagement. This is desecration,” they remarked.

Ulaka and Das also alleged that rituals were arbitrarily rescheduled and questioned what was so important that Lord Jagannath had to be kept waiting for a whole day. “For which VIP was Lord Jagannath made to wait? Was it Gautam Adani?” they asked.

“Our homes run on the blessings of Mahaprabhu Jagannath. But the homes of BJP leaders run on the blessings of Adani. For the BJP, Adani is bigger than Lord Jagannath,” they stated.

The party had earlier alleged that the three chariots were deliberately not pulled on Friday in order to allow them to be pulled by the Adani family. On Friday, the chariots were halted mid-way and were only pulled again on Saturday. The Adani family reportedly joined the Rath Yatra on Saturday and participated in pulling the chariots.

The Odisha Human Rights Commission has asked the Puri administration to take steps to prevent such incidents in future.