Congress activists gather in front of the Congress Bhavan in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s rally to gherao the Assembly. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 5: The cry for parivartan has now reached the state after Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee used it to devastating effect to topple the 35-year Left regime in Bengal.

To give the call for change a decisive shape, the Congress here is gearing for a show of strength tomorrow by gheraoing the Odisha Assembly.

Nearly one lakh party workers are expected to attend the rally, which will be addressed by Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik, Union minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers Srikant Jena and AICC leader in charge of Odisha affairs Jagdish Tytler.

The Congress has been targeting the Naveen Patnaik government since the past few weeks on various issues, starting from playing tribal card, fertiliser scarcity to recommendation for coal block allotment. Tytler had also asked a series of questions to chief minister Naveen Patnaik on various irregularities.

Odisha leaders are hopeful that more than one lakh people will take part in the programme called Parivartanar Ahwan (call for a change). “People, who have been disgusted with the Naveen Patnaik government, will come on their own and take part in the programme despite the government’s efforts to thwart it,” Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik told The Telegraph.

“People of Odisha, who have voted the BJD for three consecutive terms, have been disappointed. Their hopes about the state’s prosperity and eradication of poverty and unemployment have been belied. Now, they are determined to see the BJD out of power,” he said.

“While the poverty and unemployment have gone up during the past 12 years, natural resources have been sold out to private parties at throwaway prices,” he said.

Narendra Swain, BJD general secretary, said the Congress was the source of all corruption and the party was misleading people only to remain in power. “However, people will see through its game,” he said, adding that the Congress could not survive without power.

The PCC chief alleged that police had refused permission to set up stage and hold a meet at the rally site on Mahatma Gandhi Marg near the Assembly. “We are making arrangements to set up a makeshift stage on two trucks,” said party spokesman Arya Kumar Gyanendra.

The party leaders also alleged that the Odisha transport commissioner had verbally instructed all the regional transport officers to cancel the temporary bus permits for a week keeping tomorrow’s rally in view. “Still, more than one lakh party cadres and supporters are expected to attend the rally,” said Gyanendra based on feedbacks from the party’s 33 organisational district units.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made here to maintain law and order during tomorrow’s programme as the Assembly session is going on.

Nearly 50 platoons of armed forces would be deployed in and around the Assembly tomorrow, said a senior police officer, adding that more than six closed-circuit TV camera had been installed on Mahatma Gandhi Marg to keep a tab on the rallyists.

Buses and other vehicles would not be allowed to come near the rally site and diverted to designated parking lots, he said.