Bhubaneswar: BJD on Monday filed separate petitions seeking the disqualification of eight party MLAs who had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election on March 16.Opposition chief whip and BJD MLA Pramila Mallik, who signed the petitions, said details of the MLAs’ purported anti-party activities and statements made by them in the media against the party had been submitted to the speaker.Senior BJD MLA Arun Sahoo said the party had pointed out that the eight members had voluntarily given up party membership by defying partylines and making statements against the party, making them liable for disqualification under 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. “They frequently spoke against the party in public and went against the party’s rules and ideals,” he said.Sahoo gave examples of disqualification of JD(U) MP Sharad Yadav by Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu in Dec 2017 on grounds of anti-party conduct and disqualification of six Congress MLAs in Himachal Pradesh in Feb 2024 after they cross-voted in Rajya Sabha polls.Among the eight MLAs, the BJD had suspended Arvind Mohapatra (Patkura) and Sanatan Mahakud (Champua) ahead of the Rajya Sabha poll. After the election, the party served them show-cause notices and suspended six others—Chakramani Kanhar (Baliguda), Naba Kishore Mallick (Jayadev), Souvic Biswal (Choudwar–Cuttack), Subasini Jena (Basta), Ramakanta Bhoi (Tirtol) and Devi Ranjan Tripathy (Banki).The regional party submitted dossiers detailing alleged anti-party activities against each of the legislators seeking their disqualification. While seeking disqualification of Mahakud, the BJD cited how he abstained from party activities since a long time.MLA Devi Ranjan Tripathy said he would respond after getting to know about the specific allegation made against me. “However, the party can’t seek my disqualification for voting in RS poll to the candidate of my choice,” he said.Reacting to the BJD move, revenue and disaster management minister Suresh Pujari said the BJD leaders seem to be unaware of the anti-defection law. “They expect a suspended MLA to obey by the party whip. Whip can’t be on a suspended member,” he said.It may be mentioned here that because of the MLAs’ crossvoting, BJD-Congress supported independent candidate Datteswar Hota had lost the poll.
