Balasore: A woman hurled eggs at chief minister Naveen Patnaik during his address to public at Bhograi on Wednesday. However, none of the eggs hit him.
While one egg flew up to the pandal, the second one was intercepted in the air by the security personnel. The third egg hurled by her fell in the no man's land area. The woman, who hurled eggs on Wednesday, was identified as Rita Kamila of Guchitagheri village.
This was the second egg attack on the chief minister in the past three years.
Congress activists threw eggs at Naveen's cavalcade on his way to the Utkal University campus on February 19, 2015.
Rita is the wife of Dillip Kamila, a BJP candidate who contested unsuccessfully for the post of sarpanch during the last panchayat elections in February last.
Rita has been detained and is being interrogated.
The incident occurred soon after Naveen began to address the gathering. However, he continued his speech despite the incident after a brief interruption, said an eyewitnesses.
Additional superintendent of police Santosh Nayak said: "The woman, who hurled eggs, initially tried to mislead the police about her identity. However, her identity was ascertained later. Two eggs were thrown by her. One was intercepted and other fell in the no man's land area."
Many BJD leaders expressed their surprise as to how the woman could enter the meeting venue with eggs despite strict checking by the security personnel.
BJD leader Bhubananada Das said: "This is a very unfortunate incident. Today, the chief minister was here to inaugurate several projects, including inauguration of the Talsari beach festival. The incident occurred when he came to promote tourism. It only earned bad name for the area as well as district."
"The incident is sheer fallout of intolerant attitude of the BJP," he said.
Naveen visited Bhograi in the last leg of his tour to the district in a private chopper after Khaira and Balasore town.
During his visit, he inaugurated and laid foundation stones for projects worth Rs 29 crore. He unveiled a life-size statue of Biju Patnaik at OT Road in Balasore and laid foundation stone of a rail overbridge near the Sovarampur level crossing.
As many as 16 projects were inaugurated, while foundation stone for 20 projects were laid by him.
