Bhubaneswar, Sept. 9: The Congress has geared up to make the dawn-to-dusk Odisha strike tomorrow a success.

But, the party has made it clear that the strike against police brutality on Congress workers during the Thursday’s rally here will be peaceful. “No violence during the strike will be tolerated. Emergency services will not be disrupted,” a Congress worker said.

The police will deploy 51 platoons of force in the city during the strike. The secretariat employees have been asked to report for duty at 10am. The gates of the secretariat will be closed after 10.15am.

The Congress and the BJD traded charges with regard to the plight of lady constable Pramila Padhi, who was beaten up by the mob on the September 6 rally here.

Pradesh Congress media-cell chief and former law minister Narasingh Mishra said: “The BJD workers attacked the lady constable to defame the party.”

Citing the BJD vice-president and minister Damodar Rout’s comment that people had raised slogans of “Naveen Patnaik zinadabad” at the rally, Mishra said: “It proved that the BJD workers were present at the meeting. They caused violence.”

On the other hand, Rout said: “The rally was more of a acid test for the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Niranjan Patnaik, who is struggling to keep its chair intact. To make the rally a success, the Congress had brought people by giving them Rs 250. Only a mad man can think that BJD workers would come to a Congress rally for Rs 250.”

On the issue of who attacked the lady constable, Rout said: “Those Congress leaders, who do not want that Niranjan Patnaik should continue as party president, might have done it to create problems for him.” Pramila is recuperating and yet to be discharged from the hospital.

The BJD has been in a dilemma on how to counter the surcharged Congress. A group of BJD MLAs today met chief minister Naveen Patnaik on this issue. Naveen asked them to keep a watch on tomorrow’s development. BJD’s women wing of Rourkela today organised a rally against the Congress workers’ attack on Pramila.

The state administration today asked all district collectors and SPs to remain vigilant during the strike. The police have also intensified patrolling in the bordering areas of Odisha keeping in mind the increased Maoists activity and asked all liquor shops to close down this evening.