Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has suspended six party MLAs for anti-party activities including cross voting in the recently concluded Rajya Sabha election, have been suspended from the party. BJD President Naveen Patnaik suspended the six legislators with immediate effect following the recommendations of the PAC committee.
“Pursuant to the show cause notices issued by the Chief Whip, Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the replies received from the MLA’s, due examination of the replies by the BJD Disciplinary Committee and as per the decision taken in Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of BJD today, the following MLA’s of BJD are hereby suspended from the party with immediate effect for their involvement in anti-party activities including cross voting in the recent election to Rajya Sabha violating the core principle of BJD Constitution which mandates absolute loyalty to the party’s collective decisions,” an official order issued by the BJD president Naveen Patnaik read.
The 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 all voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supported independent candidate Dilip Ray instead of the BJD-Congress joint candidate Dr Datteswar Hota in the Rajya Sabha poll.
Reacting to the party’s action, BJD Chief Whip Pramila Mallik said that the party will take legal action against these MLAs. “We will also write to the Assembly Speaker for the disqualification of these MLAs.”
