The Bharat Bandh called on Tuesday by farmers and trade unions against the Centre’s new farm laws passed off peacefully across Odisha.

The shutdown partially impacted life. While bus and train services came to a halt, two-wheelers plied on the roads freely. Business establishments downed their shutters.

As the Odisha government had announced a holiday on Tuesday, all government offices remained closed. All banks and private offices were also closed.

The Congress activists openly supported the bandh. While chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s BJD lent moral support to farmers and organisations that had called the bandh, its workers refrained from hitting the streets.

On the other hand, Left activists, farmers and Congress workers organised pickets in different parts of the state.

Trains were stranded at different stations across the state due to the agitation by members All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee. While road communication was hit due to the bandh in Rourkela, Cuttack, of the Sambalpur and Berhampur, there was smooth traffic flow in the rural areas.

Senior minister and BJD leader Padmanabh Behera said, “We are with the farmers. Our party had also opposed the farm bills in the Rajya Sabha. We are eagerly looking forward to the discussion between farmer unions and the Centre on Wednesday.”

BJD MP Sasmit Patra said that the party has drawn the Centre’s attention towards farmers’ issues and urged it to allay their apprehensions with regard to the fallout of the new laws. “The BJD has always demanded doubling of the MSP (minimum support price) as suggested by the Swaminathan Committee and will continue to hold this stand,” said Patra.

However, the Congress on Tuesday launched a blistering attack on the BJD for not taking an active part in the bandh. “Both the BJP and the BJD are supporting each other tactfully. But here in Odisha, people have extended full support to the Bharat Bandh,” said Odisha PCC president Niranjan Patnaik.

He also asked the BJD to explain what it had done for the farmers in the last 21 years. “The BJD is just making a fool out of the farmers. Whatever has been done for farmers has been done by the Congress,” Patnaik added.