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Biju Janata Dal suspends 6 MLAs in Odisha over cross-voting in Rajya Sabha polls
Biju Janata Dal suspends six MLAs after they voted for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-backed Independent candidate Dilip Ray in Rajya Sabha poll
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Saturday suspended six of its Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), who voted for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-backed Independent candidate Dilip Ray in the Rajya Sabha polls, with immediate effect and indicated it would approach the Speaker for their disqualification, while also challenging alleged procedural lapses before the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The suspended MLAs are Chakramani Kanhar (Baliguda), Naba Kishore Mallick (Jayadev), Souvic Biswal (Choudwar-Cuttack), Subasini Jena (Basta), Ramakanta Bhoi (Tirtol) and Devi Ranjan Tripathy (Banki).
They voted in favour of Ray instead of the BJD-Congress joint nominee Datteswar Hota in the Rajya Sabha poll. Though both Ray and Hota secured 23 first-preference votes each, Ray was elected after counting the second-preference votes.
BJD president and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik took this action following recommendations from the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) after examining replies to show-cause notices issued to the legislators.
On Friday, the six legislators, in separate but near-identically worded replies, challenged the notices. They invoked Supreme Court precedent, Election Commission guidelines and provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, to argue that political parties lack the legal authority to issue whips in Rajya Sabha elections and that their votes were cast freely and lawfully.
Patnaik said on Saturday that the disciplinary committee reviewed the MLAs’ replies and, in line with the PAC’s decision, suspended them for violating the party’s constitutional principle of “absolute loyalty to collective decisions.”
BJD chief whip Pramila Mallik said the party would formally approach the Speaker of the Odisha Assembly in the coming days, seeking disqualification of the suspended MLAs under anti-defection provisions.
She said the BJD would also challenge what it termed procedural irregularities during the election, particularly the issuance of fresh ballot papers to BJP MLAs Upasana Mohapatra and Purnachandra Sethi.
“Our polling agents had objected when fresh ballot papers were issued after the first ballots had already been used, but the Election Commission did not take note of the complaints,” she said. She added that election rules do not permit issuing a second ballot once one has been issued and that such votes should have been treated as invalid.
