Baripada: Patidar leader from Gujarat Hardik Patel on Sunday extended his support to the agitation of the Kudumi community, the members of which are demanding a "scheduled tribe" tag for themselves.

Patel addressed a huge public gathering in the town on Sunday afternoon after taking part in a bike rally from Betnati to Baripada.

Addressing a gathering of more than 20,000 people, Patel criticised both the central and the state governments for not conceding to the demand of the Kudumi community.

"The state government should send a favourable report to the centre after carrying out a survey at the earliest. If the just demand of the community is not fulfilled, the agitation would be intensified in the coming days," he said.

"For last 18 years, Naveen Patnaik has been at the helm of affairs. But the issue of this community has not been addressed. In Gujarat I fought against Narendra Modi and Amit Shah duo. Here in Odisha, I can fight against Naveen Patnaik if required for the restoration of rights of the community," he said.

"I have sought time from Naveen Patnaik to meet and apprise him about the community's issue. If I get an appointment, I will meet him with a team of delegates," said Patel.

Apart from the members and leaders of the Kudumi community, several leaders and the community's people from Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal and Assam also attended the meeting.

Jaimuni Kumar Mohanta , the president of Kudumi Sena , said that the population of Kudumi in Odisha was about 25 lakh, while more than seven lakh Kudumi people lived in Mayurbhanj alone. Similarly in Balasore district, their population is high in Basta and Jaleswar. The community was considered a scheduled tribe community till 1956. But it was dropped from the list of scheduled tribe communities thereafter. The community is underprivileged and is suffering from socio-economic problems after the community members are deprived of reservation and other benefits, said a leader.

"Balasore MP R.K. Jena had raised the demand in Parliament two years ago and had apprised the National Commission for Scheduled Tribe several times. But it did not yield any result. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had assured us in 2004 during a meeting at Ram-Tirtha in Jashipur that he would look into our demands. But, nothing has happened," said Mahanta.

Life imprisonment

The Champua additional district and sessions' judge sentenced a 45-year-old man to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of murdering a woman three years ago. The accused person, Mukunda Mohanta, had hacked to death Sabitri Patra on March, 2015 in Champua. The court after cross-examining ten witnesses passed the verdict and awarded lifer to the killer