Bhubaneswar, June 22: Odisha Assembly Speaker Surama Padhy has rejected the plea of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) to disqualify eight of its MLAs over cross-voting allegations during the Rajya Sabha elections.
According to sources, the petition was rejected as it was not properly verified as required under law. Documents and digital evidence were not authenticated also while no affidavit was submitted with the complaint, sources said.
The petitions suffered from serious procedural defects and was found to be "cryptic, vague and unsubstantiated." The Speaker held that disqualification proceedings can begin only when statutory requirements are fully met.
In April, the BJD moved Speaker seeking disqualification of eight MLAs who who had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election on March 16.
Opposition chief whip and BJD MLA Pramila Mallik signed the petitions.
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).
It may be mentioned here that because of the MLAs’ crossvoting, BJD-Congress supported independent candidate Datteswar Hota had lost the poll while BJP-backed Dilip Ray elected to the Upper House.
