India, March 28 -- Congress party workers in Odisha fought a pitched battle with the police on Thursday as they tried to picket the Odisha legislative assembly, alleging rise in crimes against women and the suspension of the party's 14 MLAs from the assembly. The Congress party's protest rallies marked a dramatic escalation of its campaign against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state.

Police baton-charged the protesters, lobbed tear gas shells and used water cannon to disperse Congress workers as they broke barricades to march towards the assembly. The Congress workers, in turn, pelted stones and hurled chairs along the Mahatma Gandhi Marg leading to the assembly, injuring two police personnel, and attempted to...