India, April 15 -- Legendary leader late Biju Patnaik's statue was set on fire at Parshuram Chowk in Patnagarh area in Odisha's Balangir district today.

According to reports, a contoroversy had cropped up earlier over installation of Biju Patnaik statue at Parshuram Chowk with protests by a particular Hindu community after the then Patnagarh MLA Saroj Kumar Meher installed the statue.

The members of Brahmin Samaj staged a sit-in for around one month opposing installation of statue of Biju Patnaik. They demanded to install Lord Parshuram's statue at that place instead of Biju Patnaik's statue.

They affirmed that as the chowk has been named after Lord Parshuram, the statue of Parshuram should be installed at that place, not Biju Patna...