At least 18 persons sustained severe injuries after Chilika MLA Prashant Jagdev allegedly rammed his SUV into a crowd assembled in front of Banpur Block in Odisha’s Khordha district during Panchayat Samiti Chairman election on Saturday. The incident happened at around 11 am near the Banapur block office where indirect election for the post of block chairman was underway. Central Range IG Narasingh Bhola told News18 that the incident took place when the police personnel and some people tried to stop the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA from entering into the crowd and the MLA tried to avoid being stopped. He rammed his vehicle into the crowd, Bhola said, adding that action will be taken as per the law. Tensions erupts after the incident and people ransacked the MLA’s vehicle. Police had to intervene and rescue the politician from the spot. Ten police personnel, including Banapur IIC, the MLA himself, a journalist and at least six people were rushed to a hospital. They were later shifted to Bhubaneswar for treatment.BJD Leader Sasmit Patra said, “There is no place for violence in a democracy. Be it an MLA or a common man, violence is unacceptable.”In September, Jagdev was suspended from the BJD following a video that had gone viral in which he could be seen thrashing a BJP leader of his Chilika constituency. In August 2020, a junior engineer had registered a complaint against Jagdev for misbehaving with him. In 2016, too, he had landed himself in controversy for allegedly assaulting a lady tehsildar.(Reported by Santosh Barik, Ajesh Mallick & Mahesh Nanda)Read all minute-by-minute news updates for Uttar Pradesh election results 2022, Punjab election results 2022, Uttarakhand election results 2022, Manipur election results 2022, and Goa election results 2022.Click here for seat-wise LIVE result updates.